A Reno police drone spotted a knife threat suspect from the air just minutes after a 911 call came in downtown last week, guiding officers to an arrest about a block and a half from where the confrontation was first reported. Police say 39-year-old Reed Szymanski was detained and a knife was recovered during the encounter on Oct. 27.
Officers initially responded to a report of a person threatening someone with a knife in downtown Reno, according to the Reno Police Department. As officers headed to the scene, a Reno police officer operating the department's RAPTOR drone located a person matching the suspect's description within minutes of the initial call, as reported by mynews4.com. The drone maintained visual contact with the man and guided officers to his location roughly a block and a half from where the incident began.
Officers detained Szymanski and recovered a knife during the encounter, the outlet's report states. According to kolotv.com, Szymanski was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, resisting a public officer and possession of a controlled substance weighing less than 14 grams. The same mynews4.com report lists the drug charge specifically as a first offense. As with any pending case, Szymanski is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, and no court or booking record was available to independently confirm the case's current status.
How Reno's Drone-First Response Works
The RAPTOR drone is part of Reno's drone-as-first-responder program, which city leaders describe as a tool meant to help officers reach calls faster. Police Chief Kathryn Nance said at the time the program was approved that it would give officers the ability to respond faster to calls for service, per the same mynews4.com outlet's earlier coverage. The Reno City Council unanimously approved the program in December 2025 at a cost of $1.9 million over six years, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
The department's BRINC drones, developed with Motorola Solutions, were expected to launch in April 2026, the Reno Gazette Journal reported, though the evidence reviewed for this story does not confirm whether the program launched as planned or how it is currently deployed. The drones can be sent out within a two-mile radius and carry a battery life of roughly 42 minutes, per that same outlet. The broader rollout follows a national trend, with mynews4.com reporting in 2025 that police departments across the country were rapidly adopting drones as first responders.
Mixed Results and Lingering Privacy Concerns
Reno police dashboard figures reported by Reno News & Review showed drone flights resulted in about 17% of police responses being canceled over roughly seven months of operation, suggesting the aircraft sometimes determine a full response isn't needed. The same outlet found that when deployed, Reno's docked drones reached the scene of police calls before other responding units 63% of the time, according to Reno News & Review. That reporting also noted the drones can automatically fly to a call using GPS, with remote pilots operating them from miles away — a setup the outlet's coverage says has drawn both praise for public safety and warnings from critics about potential civil-liberties concerns.
This isn't the first time a Reno drone has played a direct role in tracking down an armed suspect. In a separate incident, a Reno police DFR pilot located a suspect who had fled on foot after a vehicle crash, maintaining visual contact and confirming she was armed as she tried to hide from officers, according to 2news.com. An officer held the suspect until backup arrived, and she was arrested without incident, that report said. Mynews4.com has also reported that some other cities have resolved as many as one in four emergency calls using drone footage alone, though it's unclear how that figure compares to Reno's own numbers.
Reno police describe the drone technology as giving officers an additional tool to quickly locate individuals, improve situational awareness and support a timely response to calls for service. The downtown knife-threat case is the latest example the department has pointed to in making that case to the public.
