The Los Angeles Police Department deployed its Drone as First Responder programme aircraft to surveil political demonstrations on at least two occasions in early 2026, flight data analysed by The Intercept reveals. Drones were launched 32 times over the 28 March No Kings rally against the Trump administration, hovering for extended periods above the Metropolitan Detention Center and a Little Tokyo intersection. The LAPD’s DFR programme was authorised for emergency response only, with no public policy covering use at protests. Seventy-four of the 75 arrests made after the event were for failure to disperse rather than for criminal offences. The revelation is the first documented case of a Drone as First Responder programme being used for political protest surveillance in the US and raises questions about function creep in cities operating similar DFR programmes without explicit protest-use prohibitions.
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European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services
Tuesday, April 21, 2026