The next time someone dials 911 in Jacksonville, the first to arrive on scene might not be a patrol car or a police officer \u2014 it might be a drone.<\/p>\n
It might look like something from a sci-fi movie, but drones are helping police the city, showing up at scenes before patrol officers to help track down suspects, find missing people and pinpoint evidence.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office drones are capable of reaching a call and arriving on location within 40 to 60 seconds, well ahead of any responding officer.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Drone as First Responder program (WJXT)<\/p>\n
Sheriff T.K. Waters says the technology is not meant to replace the officers on the force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis doesn\u2019t replace officers. It gives them better information to make more informed decisions. Another tool in our big toolbox. And I\u2019m just very excited about it,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n
What the drones offer is critical information that can help officers as they respond to evolving and sometimes dangerous situations.<\/p>\n
What did it cost?<\/p>\n
The pilot program has been active for one month and has already responded to more than 200 calls. The initiative is funded by approximately $610,000 in state funding.<\/p>\n
According to a report from Florida Politics, the funding was prioritized in the 2026 session by Sen. Clay Yarborough and House Speaker Pro Tempore Wyman Duggan.<\/p>\n
The funding request filed by Yarborough explained that the drones are deployed from patrol vehicles. It included $87,000 for a fixed-wing mapping drone, and $523,000 for 10 external drones, 25 interior drones, batters and drone maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternal drones will be deployed in enclosed spaces to assess the safety of a structure while external drones can be used in open-air settings for missing persons and post-disaster,\u201d the funding request said.<\/p>\n
The fixed-wing drone is specifically for helping in missing persons cases, according to the funding request.<\/p>\n
The idea behind first-responder drones is that they can stream live footage back to officers, who can quickly assess whether a suspect has fled, whether anyone needs medical attention, and how best to approach the situation before arriving.<\/p>\n
Addressing privacy concerns<\/p>\n
With any drone program, questions about privacy are inevitable. When asked to address those concerns directly, Waters was candid.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople fly drones all over the place where they shouldn\u2019t fly them. It\u2019s not even the police. We\u2019re not gonna use them for that purpose. And if I find out, if we find out they\u2019re being used wrong, nefariously, then we\u2019re gonna deal with the individuals that are doing it. We have policies in place to make sure that the rules and the laws are followed,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n
JSO says officer and community safety, as well as reducing criminal activity, are the top priorities of the program. Waters also assured the public that safeguards are in place to protect residents\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The next time someone dials 911 in Jacksonville, the first to arrive on scene might not be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1872,4443],"class_list":["post-348887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}