A man who swiped a bike lock from a Redmond Home Depot on NE 76th Street last Thursday didn't get far before a police drone spotted him pedaling away — and tracked him all the way to a gazebo at Marymoor Park, where he simply sat down and waited to be arrested.
Redmond officers responded to the shoplifting call around 4 p.m. after store employees reported that a man had concealed a bike lock and left the area on a bicycle, according to a post from RedmondWaPD
on X. Employees confronted the man outside the store and told police they wanted to press charges; he ultimately returned the stolen merchandise. While that confrontation was unfolding, the department's Drone as First Responder program kicked in, following the suspect to the park and feeding officers live aerial footage of his movements and location the whole way there.
Officers used that real-time video to move in and take the man into custody, citing theft and outstanding warrants. He told police he'd seen the drone overhead and knew there was no point in trying to outrun it, so he stopped at the gazebo and waited.
A Drone Program Built for Speed
Redmond's Drone as First Responder program launched in April 2024, according to KIRO 7 News.
GeekWire reports the program now runs on two full-time drone pilots working out of a flight control center, flying autonomous drones built by Seattle-based Brinc and Skydio that are wired directly into the department's dispatch system and can be airborne and on scene in under two minutes. The outlet's tracking found the department had logged 1,360 DFR calls so far this year, with shoplifting responses accounting for 82 of them.
Not the First Shoplifter Tracked by Air
This wasn't the first time a Redmond drone has shadowed a fleeing shoplifting suspect across town. GeekWire detailed a June 22 incident in which a Redmond drone launched the moment a 911 call came in about a shoplifting at a local Target — where a man was accused of stripping security tags and stuffing merchandise into a stolen backpack — and arrived on scene before officers on the ground. That suspect was tracked to a nearby hotel and then a park-and-ride lot, where he boarded a bus before officers caught up with him.
The Redmond Police Department has said that technology, dispatchers and officers working together can quickly locate suspects and resolve incidents safely.
Auburn Tests Drone as First Responder Program
Redmond is far from alone in leaning on aerial units for everyday calls. The Daily Chronicle reports that law enforcement agencies across Washington, including those in Bellingham and Everett, are adding drones to their tool kits as the technology becomes more common statewide. Academic research published in the American Journal of Criminal Justice / Springer Nature notes that Drone as First Responder programs are generally designed to speed up police response and give officers real-time video coverage before they even arrive, and the study points to one California municipal agency that runs a fleet of 12 drones launched from boxes atop 11 buildings, a program it implemented in 2023.
Closer to home, Auburn Police just wrapped a 29-day DFR trial using two Skydio X10 drones housed in automated docking stations, running from Sept. 11 through Oct. 9, according to the Auburn Reporter. That trial logged 518 flights — an average of 18.5 a day — with drones supplying helpful information in 514 of them, or 99.2%, and 53 calls resolved without a patrol officer ever needing to respond. Auburn officials said they hope to make the program permanent in January, pending City Council approval of the proposed budget.
