WCSO 2023 Drone Deployment Report

Published on February 06, 2024

Weld County Sheriff’s Office 2023 Drone Deployment Report

It is the sheriff’s office agency policy to disclose to the public the usage of our agency drones in a report. In 2023, WCSO drone pilots deployed our agency drones 30 times.

WCSO drone deployments were analyzed and broken down into two data items: mutual aid requests and types of calls for service. Mutual aid requests occur when another law enforcement agency outside of WCSO requests our assistance in a time of emergency and services, personnel, and/or equipment between law enforcement agencies is exchanged to help the other agency restore their jurisdiction to a non-emergent state. In 2023, WCSO drones were requested through mutual aid and deployed to assist other agencies 14 times.

Non-mutual aid requests are calls for service where WCSO personnel requested the assistance of a drone. In 2023, there were 16 non-mutual aid requests for the assistance of a drone on a call for service.

The second variable, types of calls for service, was analyzed to determine what type of calls for service WCSO drone pilots deployed for in 2023. Out of 30 deployments, 56.7% were for persons crimes, 23.3% were for other crimes that did not fall into the categories of persons, property, missing persons, or animal calls. Ten percent of agency drones were deployed to assist for missing persons calls, 6.7% of deployments were to assist in property crimes, and 3.3% of deployments were for calls related to animals.

In 2023, WCSO drones were most often deployed to assist in calls for service related to persons crimes, and to assist our own personnel. It is worth noting, none of the data discussed in this report includes the number of times drones were deployed strictly for training purposes.