Ohio
Police in Northeast Ohio plan to use ‘drones as first responders’ to help with emergency calls
AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) – High tech police drones are responding quickly to emergencies, offering a bird’s-eye view from the skies. And their use by local police departments is taking off.
Police in northeast Ohio believe using ‘drones as first responders’ will make the community safer and protect their officers too.
19 Investigates got a rare look behind the scenes to show you how it works and how drones can be deployed without an officer on scene.
Skydio, headquartered in California, makes these drones.
They brought a “demo dock” to Akron police to show us how dock-based drones work and allow drones to respond immediately to calls.
“It’s all about safety. We’re all about making the officers more safe, making the community more safe. And that’s really the end goal here,” said Noreen Charlton.
Charlton leads public safety strategy for Skydio.
She said police officers don’t have to be expert drone pilots to operate them.
That’s why they built a drone that is easy to fly.
“So the Skydio drones are constantly building the environment around themselves so that they know where they are flying and you can confidently fly without having to worry about crashing,” Charlton said.
Drones as first responders
Charlton believes “drones as first responders” is changing policing.
Officers responding to emergencies don’t have to fly a drone on their own anymore if their agency uses a dock-based system that houses and launches the drones from locations across a city.
Instead, they can rely on other officers who remotely control the drones from a command center set up at police headquarters or another location.
Police departments in cities across the country are installing these docks, which pair with the drones Skydio manufactures.
“We’re getting the drone in the air and overhead in less than two minutes, which means that the responding officers can watch this live stream from the drone while they are en route to the call,” Charlton said.
Charlton said that ability is providing officers better situational awareness when they arrive on scene.
“They can slow down, they can make better tactical decisions, and this is leading to the ability to de-escalate situations and reducing potential use of force,” she said.
She said faster response times using drones are even capturing crime in progress.
“We’re getting video evidence of that, which is leading to faster case resolution and holding people accountable for the crimes that they’re committing in these communities,” Charlton said.
There are also smaller drones for flying inside.
Skydio said these drones gives officers eyes inside before they enter a building.
Drone docks in action
We watched a demonstration of how the drone docks work from the top of the roof of the Akron police headquarters, a high-rise building towering over South High Street.
This was a ‘demo dock’ set up temporarily by SkyDio.
A drone sat inside of the dock while the police drone pilots operated it from a command center several floors below.
The dock started beeping and opened and the drone readied for takeoff, its blades spinning.
After a simple command, it lifted up into the sky over the city and traveled to wherever police needed it to go.
“With the click of a button, the drone is flying there on its own. The officer can take over at any point,” Charlton said. “There is always an operator or a pilot in a chair somewhere, a dispatch center or a real-time crime center that is controlling the drone.”
Drones can come back to the dock when they need to charge. Another drone can be sent out in the meantime if a call comes in.
Law enforcement agencies can place docks like this where they get the most calls for service.
The drones have red and blue lights so it’s clear they are operated by law enforcement, Charlton said. They also have speakers to talk to people.
They can fly in extreme heat and cold and handle windy conditions.
Akron police advancing drone program
Akron police have seven drones with 20 pilots right now and four more drones on the way.
The drones have been used to chase suspects, help with search and rescue missions and missing children investigations.
Lt. Michael Murphy with Akron police said drones have been a game changer.
They believe it will reduce violent crime in the city and keep officers safe too.
“It makes this job much safer for our officers because it gives us the ability to view things without having to put the officers in danger, in harm’s way,” Murphy said.
Akron police are not operating the drones with docks yet.
They said they hope to rollout at least three docks in the city this year for their next steps in their “Drones as First Responders” (DFR) program.
They said they already have all of the required FAA waivers and are looking into grants to help pay for them.
Akron police said the drones cost about $15-16,000.
Ohio agencies using Skydio drones
Six law enforcement agencies in Ohio use Skydio drones including Cleveland police.
Cleveland police said they have nine Skydio drones and seven pilots with their FAA certification and they’re considering getting the docks in the future.
Cincinnati police is the only agency in Ohio using dock-based drones right now, according to Skydio.
The company serves more than 800 public safety agencies across the country.
Privacy concerns addressed
Some citizens and experts have concerns about police drones, from privacy to surveillance.
The American Civil Liberties Union recognizes “drones have many beneficial uses” for police but recommends proper regulation and safeguards. The organization suggests limiting drone usage to incidents involving warrants, emergencies or specific crime evidence collection.
And when it comes to data retention, the ACLU recommends agencies only save images that may contain evidence of a crime or are relevant to an ongoing investigation or trial.
We asked SkyDio about these privacy concerns.
“Most agencies are developing policies around their DFR program being specifically for response to calls for service,” Noreen Charlton said. “So the community members calling in something to 911 and then using the drone for that and being very explicit about not using them for surveillance,” she said.
Many police agencies using drones maintain transparency dashboards showing flight information to the public. Cleveland police operates a transparency dashboard you can see here.
Akron Police do not have a dashboard, but they said they have plans for one in the near future.
Need an investigation? Contact 19 Investigates with your request.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Ohio State cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. will return for his senior season.
Mathews made an announcement on Instagram on Jan. 15, the day after the deadline for underclassmen to file paperwork to enter this year’s NFL draft had passed.
He started last fall opposite Davison Igbinosun and was a third-team All-Big Ten selection.
Along with being reliable in pass coverage, Mathews was one of the Buckeyes’ most disruptive defenders. He had two interceptions and forced a fumble in a win at Illinois in October while on a blitz.
His return provides needed starting returning experience for Ohio State at cornerback as Igbinosun exhausted his eligibility.
The Buckeyes had bolstered the position with depth through the portal with the commitment of Alabama transfer Cam Calhoun, who made a start at Utah in 2024.
Mathews and Calhoun were once teammates at Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow along on Bluesky, Instagram and X for more.
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It started with a Facebook post.
David Gedert − also known as the drag queen Sugar Vermonte − criticized Republican state Rep. Josh Williams on the page for his Toledo food truck, Maybe Cheese Born With It. Williams, who is running for Congress in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, has sponsored legislation to criminalize certain drag performances.
The Lucas County Libertarian Party responded, “SUGAR FOR CONGRESS!” And a campaign was born.
Gedert announced that he’s running as a libertarian in the 9th District, which includes Toledo and swaths of northwest Ohio. Current Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress, faces an uphill battle after lawmakers made the district more Republican in the latest round of redistricting.
Williams, former state Rep. Derek Merrin and Air Force veteran Alea Nadeem will face off in the GOP primary in May.
“The two-party system that pretends to work for us is ridiculous,” Gedert told the statehouse bureau. “We have to stop pretending that it’s working. We all recognize that it’s broken in one way or another, but someone has to stand up.”
Who is David Gedert, a.k.a. Sugar Vermonte?
Gedert grew up in a Detroit suburb, but he moved to Toledo at age 17 after both of his parents died. His resume includes a bit of everything: drag queen, Realtor, McDonald’s corporate manager and paraeducator for children with autism.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Gedert said, he bought a camper and some pink paint and opened Maybe Cheese Born With It. He then landed on the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race and took second place.
Gedert said he’s always been politically engaged and evolved from a registered Democrat to independent. When the Libertarian Party contacted him about a bid for Congress, he reviewed the platform and said it aligns with much of what he believes.
Gedert also said the people of northwest Ohio deserve a better candidate for Congress, even though he respects Kaptur and her service.
“She came up in politics in an absolutely different world than the one we live in now,” Gedert said. “I think it is absolutely time for a fresh vision and someone who can really speak to the issues we are facing right now.”
Gedert doesn’t think that person is Williams, who reintroduced a bill last year that would restrict drag performances deemed “obscene” to adult-only clubs and bars. As Sugar Vermonte, Gedert has hosted Dolly Parton brunches to raise money for Blood Cancer United and contends Williams’ bill is “ridiculous.”
“Bless his heart,” he said of Williams − with a tinge of sarcasm.
Representatives for Kaptur and Williams did not respond to requests for comment.
This isn’t the first time a libertarian has run in the 9th Congressional District. Business owner Tom Pruss received more than 15,000 votes in the 2024 election that Kaptur narrowly won. The outcome raised questions about whether Pruss siphoned votes from Merrin, who lost to Kaptur by nearly 2,400 votes, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s office.
To Gedert, 2024 showed that 15,000 people in northwest Ohio wanted something different from their elected officials.
“If the two-party system doesn’t like it, too bad buttercup,” Gedert said. “You don’t always get what you like.”
State government reporter Haley BeMiller can be reached at hbemiller@usatodayco.com or @haleybemiller on X.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jon Husted questioned witnesses at a Senate hearing Wednesday about cases where men allegedly slipped mifepristone to women without their consent, citing examples from Ohio and Texas to argue for reinstating in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion drug.
“I’ve seen some of the horrors of men who are trying to use the drug to end pregnancies against the will of the woman that they give the drug to,” Husted told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee during its hearing titled “Protecting Women’s Health: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs.”
“This is not the choice of a woman controlling her own body,” he said.
Ohio case among examples cited
Husted presented two cases to illustrate his concerns, including one where Toledo-area doctor Hassan-James Abbas was indicted after he was accused of obtaining the drug from an out-of-state telemedicine provider and used it to secretly end his girlfriend’s pregnancy.
Abbas is accused of ordering mifepristone and misoprostol after the woman said she didn’t want an abortion by using his estranged wife’s identity and then forcing them into the woman’s mouth while she slept. His license to practice medicine has been suspended.
Husted also cited a 2025 Texas case where a man is accused of obtaining mifepristone and slipping it into the hot chocolate of a woman he had impregnated, and who was refusing to get an abortion.
Senator’s personal connection
Husted opened his questioning by sharing his own adoption story, which he has discussed publicly before.
“I started out in foster care, was adopted, and know that my birth mother was under a lot of pressure to have an abortion, and thankfully for me, she didn’t,” the Republican senator said. “I know that my biological father had pressured her to do so, and she chose an adoption.”
He said reflecting on his background made him question whether he would exist today if mifepristone had been as easily accessible when his birth mother was pregnant. “I would like to think that my birth mother would have still chosen to have an adoption, but I’ve seen some of the horrors of men who are trying to use the drug to end pregnancies against the will of the woman that they give the drug to,” he said.
Question of access vs. safety
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a witness at the hearing, told Husted that putting an in-person dispensing requirement in place would address the problem.
Murrill responded that Louisiana believes “putting the in-person dispensing requirement back in place would substantially protect women.” She noted that Louisiana has placed the drugs on its state controlled substances list “so that we can track who’s prescribing them and make sure that there’s some accountability for the use of these medications.”
The hearing featured sharply contrasting testimony about mifepristone’s safety and the impact of FDA regulations governing its distribution.
In her written testimony, Murrill argued that the Biden administration’s 2023 decision to remove in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone was “not a legal or medically-informed decision, but a purely political one.”
She presented cases from Louisiana where she said women were harmed by mail-order abortion drugs, including a teenager allegedly coerced by her mother and cases where women experienced medical emergencies.
Testimony from Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, an Adjunct Professor, Indiana University School of Medicine, outlined various complications associated with medication abortion and argued that “telemedicine abortion” and “self-administered abortion are unsafe and endanger women.”
However, Dr. Nisha Verma of Physicians for Reproductive Health stated that “the science on mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness is longstanding and settled,” noting the drug “has been rigorously researched and proven safe and effective in hundreds of high-quality, peer-reviewed studies.”
She testified that serious adverse events with medication abortion “are very rare, consistently occurring in well under one percent of cases.”
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