- April 10, 2026
The Flagler County Sheriff’s is in the process of using drones as a form of first responders, according to Sheriff Rick Staly.
“We will be one of the first agencies in the state of Florida and, frankly, across the country, that has drones as a first responder,” Staly said.
Staly announced the plans for these drones at the April 9 Addressing Crime Together Community Meeting held at The FCSO Operation Center. The meeting reviewed crime data for 2025, new assets and trends within the FCSO and crime trends so far in 2026.
The FCSO has five portable drones with licensed pilots, Staly said, and they are in the final stages of being able to deploy them.
Two drones will be placed in Palm Coast, one in the north end and the other in the south end of the city, though Staly did not say where exactly. When the drones are needed, analysts from the Real Time Crime Center will be able to remotely launch drones and send them to a call.
The FCSO recently had to prematurely deploy the drones for a call, Staly said.
“The drone got there before the first deputy was on the scene and was beaming back, if you will, video of what exactly was going on into our real time crime center," he said. "That was being relayed to the deputies as they were responding."
Staly said the drones will be used alongside the FCSO’s new helicopter to aid deputies, using a blended approach. He did not say when the drones would be officially deployed, but the FCSO’s helicopter should be operational mid July.
The FCSO is also adding a new 2025 Jeep Gladiator to its Special Operations Unit.
The Jeep sits 30 inches off the ground and will be marked with FCSO’s “ghost marking” decals. Tax payers did not pay for this Jeep, Staly said, but instead the money came from seized drug-related assets.
Staly said the new edition will be used for high water rescue during floods or delivering bottled water or food during emergency situations, as well as responding to the rural and wooded Flagler Estates area, which he called “the Wild West area of Flagler County.”
During 2025, the FCSO received over 126,000 calls for service, culminating in over 3,000 arrests. Despite that, Staly said the crime rate is down 30% from 2024.
Staly said the crime reporting methods and definitions changed between 2023 and 2024. Until 2023, the FCSO reported data to the Federal Bureau of Investigations Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
Now the FCSO must report to the National Incident-Based Reporting system. The NIBR captures more detailed information about the crime, victims and suspects, according to the FCSO’s 2025 annual report.
In the first three months of 2026, Staly said the county is seeing trends in fraud cases and domestic violence cases. There have 124 fraud cases report
Most of the fraud cases are scams, Staly said. Flagler County had one victim that lost a million dollars, others that have lost thousands of dollars. The Cyber Crimes Unit is the FCSO’s fastest growing unit, he said.
Victims should report scams right away, he said.
“Once you realize that you have become a victim,” Staly said, “if you're embarrassed and don't report it right away, it makes it much harder for us to recover that money.”
Domestic violence cases and violations of injunctions are the biggest issues seen in Flagler County so far this year, Staly said, with 154 reported domestic violence cases.
“A lot of domestic violence is not reported,” Staly said. “We have a zero tolerance policy. So if we can prove probable cause when a deputy's on the scene who the primary aggressor is that person is going to get arrested.”
