Skip to content

Pinning the EPS drone claim to the record

Original source: https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/TrafficVehicles/TrafficCollisions/RPAS Additional: https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/CommunityPolicing/OperationalServices/FlightOps · https://www.offdrones.ca/drone-industries/drones-in-law-enforcement · https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/surveillance-towers-and-police-drones-9.7238022 Retrieved: 2026-07-05

DOCUMENTED — the EPS aerial fleet

Drones/RPAS (EPS official + secondary): - EPS conceived RPAS use for collision investigation in January 2014; received its Transport Canada operations certificate June 2014. The Major Collision Investigation Section has fourteen officers trained to operate RPAS (EPS official page). - Secondary (offdrones.ca): "The EPS currently operates 10 drones, with more on order." Uses listed: "documenting major collision scenes, searching for missing persons in difficult terrain, and providing aerial views during high-risk situations to improve officer safety," plus "bomb analysis and crime scene documentation." Features: "advanced camera features (including zoom and thermal imaging)." The same source says the drones "supplement traditional police helicopter operations." - Make/model: EPS's own pages do NOT name a manufacturer. General law-enforcement reporting says police forces use DJI Matrice-class drones (Matrice 4 Thermal, Matrice 350 RTK) — a plausible EPS platform class but NOT EPS-sourced. Treat "DJI Matrice" as unconfirmed for EPS specifically.

Air-1 helicopter (EPS official): responds to ~3,000 calls annually, equipped with forward-looking infrared (FLIR) for ground searches; assists pursuits, high-risk vehicle stops, suspect/evidence searches.

NOT DOCUMENTED — the claims to refuse

  • No public reporting of routine or nightly EPS drone surveillance flights over Edmonton neighbourhoods. EPS RPAS use as documented is incident-driven (collisions, missing persons, tactical/high-risk callouts), not persistent patrol. A claim of "nightly drone flights over the city" is not sourceable to any record found.
  • No armed EPS drone; no Israeli-military UAV in EPS hands. EPS flies small commercial thermal quadcopters, not Hermes/Heron-class military UAVs.
  • The Zedcor AI surveillance towers (180 units in 2018 → ~5,000 in 2026 across Alberta) in the CBC piece are a private/RCMP-rural story, not EPS drones — do not fold them into the EPS claim.

Confidence

HIGH that EPS runs a thermal-capable RPAS program (~10 drones) + FLIR helicopter for incident support. LOW/UNSOURCED on nightly city-wide surveillance flights and on the specific DJI-Matrice model. The disciplined claim is the shared surveillance-drone doctrine, not a fabricated flight pattern.