Drones could help Tucson police boost emergency response times

The Tucson Police Department plans to implement an aerial emergency response year-long pilot program aimed at improving response time to calls and improving safety for first responders and the community.

Tucson Police Chief Monica Prieto said at a June 9 public meeting the drones can arrive on scene within two to three minutes, a faster response time than ground units 91% of the time.

Aerial information helps first responders before they arrive on scene, she said.

“Early information helps identify “hazards, supports deescalation and enhances responder safety and decision making,” Prieto said.

She pointed to the benefit of drones which help police locate missing people, fleeing suspects and people in crisis.

Tucson police already use a range of tech tools including a technology hub called the Community Safety and Response Center, automated license plate readers, video surveillance, body-worn cameras and line-of-sight drones.

Prieto said drones have already helped during criminal investigations. She pointed to an incident during which police used drones to locate and arrest a homicide suspect and recover evidence during an active homicide scene.

Other communities also use drones as first responders, like Oro Valley, a municipality north of Tucson. The town leased Flock Safety drones in February in the hopes of improving how police respond to calls.  

What will the pilot program look like?

The Aerial Emergency Response pilot program will use Skydio drones at four locations with two docks at each station. The program will test whether fast aerial awareness can improve first responder response time and safety.

The use of the drones will only be used for calls of service or investigations. That's according to Luis Romero, a technology administrator with the Tucson police.

The pilot program seeks to measure numerous data points, like launch-to-arrival time, user and community feedback, usable time on scene, privacy compliance and more.

Based on 2025 data and modeling, Skydio drones are expected to cover 66,917 public safety calls between both Tucson police and fire departments with an average response time in the coverage area roughly 2.23 minutes.  

Will data be shared with ICE?

Skydio is integrated with Axon, a public safety technology company criticized for its contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

Councilmember Miranda Schubert noted Skydio's partnership with Axon. She raised concerns about the company's ongoing contract with immigration officials, and asked police to explain more about how the data is kept.

Romero said data from the drones will be stored on a private cloud used solely by the Tucson Police Department. She noted that only authorized users and administrators will be able to access the system.

“These are not shared ecosystems. This is its own separate cloud-based technology that is only associated as our own private cloud for the city of Tucson, specifically the Tucson Police Department,” Romero said.

Data from these deployments will be kept for 185 days, he said, the same as other record keeping for non-evidentiary recordings.

Romero said use of the drone systems will be audited quarterly to ensure compliance.

The Aerial Emergency Response pilot will go through oversight of various groups after six months, including a new group, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Governance Group; and a community oversight group, the Independent Audit and Performance Commission among others.

The department said it doesn’t share data with other agencies unless there is a “approved Intergovernmental Agreement or Memorandum of Understanding, an authorized use case, and a documented, auditable process.”

The Tucson police website indicates the agency does not have an agreement or memorandum of understanding to provide data for immigration enforcement or removal operations. The department does share case information and evidence on large cases with partner agencies at the local, state, federal and tribal levels.

Increasing budget for public safety

The use of technology is part of Tucson’s Safe City Initiative, a program that coordinates efforts to improve safety across the city.

The initiative also includes a Transit Safety and Security Action Plan that outlines efforts to protect bus drivers and riders.

The Tucson City Council discussed on June 9 how to allocate $2.15 million annually, or $43 million over 20 years for transit safety activities. The funding comes from the Pima County Regional Transportation Authority, paid for by a half-cent sales tax. Tucson's portion of the funding comes from a $51 million pool of funds allocated for transit safety projects across Pima County.

The plan includes deploying transit ambassadors and outreach teams, sending police to patrol high-priority areas, increasing contracted security guards and developing an operator safety improvement plan.

The draft budget also includes funding for cameras, barrier improvements for the operators, repeat offender tracking, and more.

The plan was developed with input from city departments, transit company Sun Tran representatives, labor partners and community representatives.

Schubert criticized parts of the transit safety plan that allocates funds to track repeat offenders.

“We don't have a clear policy right now for drivers and operators to prevent those people from getting on, we also don’t have a clear expulsion policy yet,” she said. “These are low hanging fruit and basic features of making a safe transit system.”

She also pushed back on paying for public transit, which another council member brought up at the meeting. She said that the repeat offenders are just a small percentage of transit riders, and that 70% of the people who ride the bus are low income.