Questions about privacy continued to swirl Thursday regarding the Los Angeles Police Department’s expanded use of drones, following a presentation this week before the police commission.
The department’s use of drones began receiving closer scrutiny following a report last week by The Intercept, which examined online flight data and discovered that the LAPD flew more than 30 drone sorties during a Jan. 31 ICE Out protest and the March 28 No Kings protests in downtown L.A.
Then, at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting on Tuesday, a detective offered details on the LAPD’s burgeoning use of drones in police work.
Between June and December of 2025, the LAPD deployed drones in 480 high-risk situations out of more than 3,000 flights conducted, according to the presentation by Detective Michael Hackman.
The numbers are even higher since January, according to Hackman, who heads up the LAPD’s Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
In answer to questions about drones and facial recognition technology, Hackman told the commission that while the drones are used to assess crowd behavior and size, they are not used to identify people at protests.
“We’re not interested in recording or filming … people’s faces to identify them,” he reportedly told the commissioners.
A neighborhood group in Echo Park has explicitly expressed its opposition to LAPD’s expanded use of drones. The remotely piloted devices are used as part of the LAPD’s Drone as First Responder Program, which was initiated in 2025.
As for the majority of LAPD responses, Hackman said drones could be deployed as a first response in about 10% of cases.
Of the 480 high-risk cases involving drone use last year, 33 were SWAT responses and seven were bomb or hazmat responses, Hackman said.