CHICAGO (WLS) — Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly known as drones, are above and aloft now in many communities, and they’re responding to crime in real time.

Drone use by law enforcement is taking off in metro Chicago, and police tell the ABC7 I-Team the “eyes in the sky” are game changers in safety and surveillance.

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In west suburban Aurora, the I-Team was invited to be on the scene to watch as drones are now being incorporated into policing.

Directions came from an officer operating a drone in the dark of night, helping direct other officers on the ground looking for a missing man.

They were looking for a missing man believed to be armed and experiencing a mental health crisis. He was located without incident, according to Aurora police, and transported to a local hospital.

In the dark of night, an eye in the sky can do what humans cannot.

“We’re able to get up in the air cover ground and then with the drone technology (butt) We can pick up their heat signatures and locate them a little faster than we would with the naked eye,” explained Aurora Police Department Sergeant Ronald Miller.

Aurora’s trained drone officers operate within the special response team. Nearly two dozen are certified pilots and more are currently being trained.

Officials with the department did not want to give a specific number on the amount of drones they own and would only verify there are multiple drones in the fleet.

Officer Sam Roman told the I-Team the drones are a game changer, adding, “It drastically increases our ability to maintain safety in numbers as well as getting as much intel as possible.”

Other police departments are in agreement and they insist drones are becoming a must have tool to help locate missing people, gather evidence at crime and crash scenes, monitor large public events, track fleeing suspects and more.

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Officer Omar Ortiz, one the Aurora Police Department’s drone pilots, said the biggest misconception is that police are using drones to spy on people.

“Definitely not true,” Ortiz said. “Most of the time we are not recording or snapping pictures unless it’s of evidentiary value.”

Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said drone video evidence in the courtroom helps prove cases that might otherwise be difficult to comprehend.

“When you have that aerial view you can really show to the judge and jury -this is the culmination of what occurred that resulted in the arrest and charges,” she said.

The I-Team rode along with Officer Oritz, who keeps a drone in his sqaud car. It’s on hand for specific situations such as traffic stops when a person is flagged as a potential flight risk. He was called as back up for one such stop.

“If this guy takes off, I can track him to wherever he’s going,” he said.

Later in the evening, there was another drone opportunity as a call came in for a potential home invasion in a subdivision.

Before officers go inside, the drone is sent up to get a birds eye view of the home and surround area incase an inside intruder tries to escape. In that case the home was empty and cleared of any threat.

Illinois law limits police use of drones including how the video information can be collected and stored.

In 2023 that law was expanded so it now allows for the monitoring of certain large public events like music festivals and parades.

That change came in response to the 2022 deadly Highland Park parade attack, when a gunman perched on a roof fired into the crowd below.

Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said the ability to survey the route may have made a difference.

“That day we had in our possession a number of drones but state law precluded us at that point from using those drones,” he said.

Police agencies are required to report drone ownership and usage to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority every year.

Of the 955 local and state law enforcement agencies throughout Illinois, in 2024, less than half responded about whether they had drones, and of that number, only 147 said they did. According to the report, the most common reasons for flights were for crime or accident scene photography.

Cristin Evans, a spokesperson with ICJIA, told the I-Team in a statement, “ICJIA’S efforts to collect drone information extend beyond the Illinois Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act requirements by conducting broad outreach, offering technical support, and developing user-friendly reporting tools to facilitate compliance. We are committed to transparency and continuous improvement in data collection, but ultimately data completeness requires full agency participation.”

Civil rights groups are now warning the quickly-evolving technology is creating new threats to privacy and beyond.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit, is tracking the growing use of police drones.

“We have concerns around the slippery slope that will almost certainly occur in some of these deployments,” said Beryl Lipton, a Senior Investigative Research with EFF. “If you were going to gain access to some of these areas you were absolutely going to need a warrant. However the drone is able to circumvent some of those requirements, because the drone is able to go (butt) where the average patrol officer isn’t going to be able to go.”

EFF warns there’s not enough protection to stop what they describe as the overreach and erosion of civil liberties.

“We’re seeing a big push to deploy drones in response to all kinds of 911 calls and obviously there are surveillance and privacy concerns with having basically flying cameras overhead every time there is an office who’s supposed to be dispatched to a location,” Lipton said.

Law enforcement agencies insist drones are tools that are here to stay in law enforcement.

“Using technology like this appropriately in police work is absolutely necessary to keep everybody safe,” Oak Brook Police Chief Brian Strockis said.

He told the I-Team his department is very tech savvy and as been using drones effectively when it appropriate to police the area which covers the popular and busy Oak Brook Mall. And now, they are about to go to a new level with an autonomous drone that can swiftly respond to specific 911 calls.

“It’s able to deploy itself and go to the scene at 50 miles per hour,” he added. “So an officer responding to an emergency that has eyes on the ground and they know what they’re getting into long before they actually exit their squad car.”

The drone made by the company Flock Safety is not operated by someone traditionally holding a joystick. It will be housed on top of the department’s roof and tied into the 911 system. It will deploy itself to specific calls, potentially arriving at a scene before officers on the ground do.

Chief Strockis said the drone will not be replacing officers but will be a huge benefit to officer safety and situational awareness.

“We’re excited to be the first not only in Illinois but in the entire Midwest to have a drone as a first responder,” Strockis said.