Minneapolis police highlight missing person found by drone as city weighs aerial tech program

Minneapolis police officers and a K-9 had been looking for a man for about three-and-a-half hours. A drone found him nine minutes after it launched. 

That’s according to a police report documenting the search for 82-year-old Bob Stewart, a Marine veteran who had gone missing after he went for a walk on the city’s north side. His wife began to get worried when he didn’t return home back in May. 

“It was frightening, though. I remember just thinking, ‘This can’t be how this ends. This just can’t be,’” Linda Stewart said. 

Bob said that he had fallen into Shingle Creek in Webber Park in north Minneapolis. 

“[I] slipped right in the mud, and gravel, and water and everything, slid right in. Lay there for about, on and off, five hours,” Bob Stewart said. 

The drone operator for the Minneapolis Police Department wrote in his report that he spotted Bob Stewart after noticing an “anomaly” through the vegetation in a densely wooded area of the park. It was Bob Stewart, trying to climb out. With the drone operator keeping an eye on him from above, officers on the ground got to him. 

“We’re both very faithful people and believe that everything happens for a reason, so I was praying, Bob was praying,” Linda Stewart said. 

The couple is overjoyed that everyone got home safe, saying they have no interest in the politics involved in police using drones. 

Minneapolis police are citing the May incident as a positive example of how the technology can be used to keep the public safe. This week, MPD presented information to the City Council about trying out a drones-as-first-responders program. The key difference is that, at the moment, police can launch a drone at the scene from a vehicle once they’ve already arrived at an emergency. If adopted, the first responder program would send a drone in response to an emergency call ahead of officers, allowing them to start documenting the scene far faster. 

Officials say it would be a free 75-day trial period in the 4th Precinct with the company Skydio, Inc., and the drones would have police markings and flash red and blue lights. They say the goal is to see if drones can improve emergency response times, make both the public and the first responders safer and help clear calls when police aren’t needed.

Several other Minnesota agencies already use the drones, including in St. Paul and Minnetonka, but Minneapolis residents pushed back Wednesday, expressing concerns about surveillance and the company the city could potentially contract with. 

Councilmember LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents the part of Minneapolis where the pilot program would be launched, said she supports the measure. She says that she has been talking to constituents about this for at least a few years.

“I went to a demo and I was like, ‘Wow, let’s try this,’” Vetaw said. “This footage is going to be deleted after seven days if it’s not used in an investigation. This is stored with MPD. This is not Skydio’s footage. This is MPD’s footage.” 

The council is set to take a vote on the pilot program on Thursday.