A roughly $20,000 Pittsburgh police drone never made it into the air last week, after an officer arriving for duty accidentally drove over it in the parking lot outside the Zone 6 station in the West End. The small unmanned aircraft had been set out for a planned warrant service tied to a federal and local sweep known as Operation Steel Reaper.
Officers had positioned the drone on the pavement in front of a patrol vehicle to get a bird's eye view of a target location while its operators waited nearby, according to reporting by WPXI. The sUAS never lifted off before the arriving officer's vehicle rolled over it.
Drone Program History and Replacement
As reported by WPXI, the city first purchased two drones in 2018 for about $50,000 but held them in storage for years amid privacy concerns. The program expanded last August with nine additional aircraft that officials now deploy for SWAT standoffs, large fires and missing person searches.
In a statement to the station, a Public Safety spokesperson said “the driver did not observe the visual lights emitting from the propellers and his vehicle made contact with the sUAS, or small unmanned aircraft system.” According to WPXI, the manufacturer agreed to replace the destroyed drone at no charge. City officials say the replacement has already been delivered and the original pair of drones has been repurposed for training.
Operation Steel Reaper and Arrests
The mishap unfolded in the middle of Operation Steel Reaper, a joint investigation into violent drug trafficking across Pittsburgh. The sweep produced multiple arrests and federal charges, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. CBS Pittsburgh reported that a federal grand jury indicted 16 residents and quoted the FBI as describing the defendants as “violent individuals” whose activity “was not street level.”
Why the Mishap Matters
City officials say the drone fleet remains in service despite the parking lot casualty, but the incident raises obvious questions about where and how sUAS are staged and launched around busy police facilities. Zone 6 covers West End neighborhoods and posts monthly crime information on the city website, illustrating why officers are eager for quick aerial views even as the department continues to wrestle with training needs and privacy concerns, according to the City of Pittsburgh.
