Government red tape grounds Cleveland police drones: I-Team

CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found yet another delay with new drones for Cleveland police, but the plan has already dragged out for years.

Drones have finally been delivered to Cleveland police, but you won’t see them helping to fight crime anytime soon. Maybe not until next year.

The I-Team recently exposed a big delay in getting drones for use by Cleveland police. Council approved the money two years ago, but we found, as of last month, police still did not have the drones.

Now, the chief has told city council that the shipment of drones has come in, but the equipment won’t be used until the Cleveland Police Commission approves the policy for using it.

“We would start our conversations with the CPC (Cleveland Police Commission). That would be step 1 to see if they would approve of it to move forward, then the policy draft would be in place. Very time-consuming before we could move this forward. I do not anticipate that would be anytime this year,” Chief Dorothy Todd told the Council Public Safety Committee.

Again, the chief says don’t count on the drones until next year.

Meanwhile, Parma police have used drones since 2017. Westlake police have 15 drones and many other local, county and federal law enforcement agencies have been using drones for a long time.