(Image: Cleveland Police)
Drones are transforming policing by reaching incidents in as little as 90 seconds.
Cleveland Police said drones helped locate 34 missing people, 45 suspects, and 64 vehicles, and logged more than 170 hours of flight time during the first six months of the year.
It comes as the force roles out the Drone as First Responder (DFR) programme which the unmanned aircraft housed in weatherproof boxes across the area and launched remotely from the force’s control room to support live incidents.
The programme has now expanded to five sites across the Cleveland area.
Between January and June 2026, the drones flew 690 missions and were first on scene 477 times.
On 67 occasions, the drone response meant officers did not need to attend in person.
Superintendent Paul Richardson said: "DFR is an invaluable tool in helping us to deploy our resources and improve the effectiveness of incident response.
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"We have seen throughout the last six months that, as early adopters of the DFR concept, the benefits to having the DFR to add to our 'business as usual' drones are countless."
"The stats speak for themselves, and it can only be good news that we have expanded into five sites, covering the whole of Cleveland, where DFR can continue to help us protect our communities and tackle criminals."
The DFR scheme operates alongside Cleveland Police’s routine drone fleet, which was used 2,185 times in 2025.