The St. Petersburg Police Department has activated a rooftop Drone Hive at its headquarters — three Skydio X10 drones docked and ready to launch within seconds of a priority call. Chief Anthony Holloway announced the expansion this week, and the numbers behind it are already making a case for what comes next, as reported by WUSF.
What the Drone Hive Actually Does
The Drone Hive sits on the roof of SPPD’s headquarters and connects directly to the department’s newly built Real Time Intelligence Center.
When a priority one or two call comes in, pilots inside the RTIC can launch a drone before the first patrol car leaves the lot. The aircraft covers up to 3 miles from its docking station, flies at 46 mph, and gets eyes on a scene within five minutes or less.
“After a person has called in with a description, now we have eyes on the scene,” Chief Holloway said. “So we can give officers information on how they can drive into the scene safely or how they can set up the perimeter.”
The live feed streams to pilots at the RTIC and can be pushed directly to command staff watching remotely. The drones carry thermal imaging for nighttime operations and enough optical zoom to determine whether a suspect is armed and, according to Holloway, what type of weapon they’re carrying.
The system isn’t autonomous. Florida law requires a human pilot for every flight, and Holloway noted that state law also prohibits using the airborne cameras for surveillance unless a crime has already been committed. The RTIC is staffed by a sergeant, two sworn pilot officers, and civilian analysts who also monitor several hundred city-owned cameras across St. Petersburg.
A Program Seven Years in the Making
SPPD’s drone program didn’t start with a Drone Hive. It started in 2019 with a handful of aircraft supporting SWAT operations and traffic investigations. Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 pushed the department to use drones differently — when flooding made roads impassable, aerial footage became the only reliable way to report conditions to the Emergency Operations Center.
That pivot led to a formal Drone as First Responder initiative in March 2025, when SPPD began dispatching drones to active police calls. The Hive launched earlier this year after a testing period. Since March 2025, the program has been deployed to more than 860 priority calls…