KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Knoxville police are asking the City Council to approve thousands of dollars for an expanded drone program that department leaders say could cut emergency response times from minutes to seconds.
The proposal, expected to go before council next week, would allow the Knoxville Police Department to deploy drones as “first responders,” launching them remotely from docking stations across the city instead of transporting and flying them from patrol cars.
Police Sgt. Michael Tucker has been with the department for 20 years. In 2017, the drone team was created in the department. A team he took over in 2022, and that just last year was deployed on more than 100 calls…