Overland Park residents who spot a drone buzzing overhead can check whether it belongs to police.

The Overland Park Police Department launched a public Drone as a First Responder (DFR) Transparency Page on Sept. 1. The online tracker logs every police drone flight in real time and lets anyone search past deployments by date or keyword, according to KCTV5.

The site shows four categories of data for each flight: an interactive map with the exact flight path, start and end times, the reason for deployment and corresponding case numbers. It does not store video footage.

Public Information Officer John Lacy said the department built the tracker after fielding frequent calls from residents who did not know whether a drone overhead was theirs.

"People would call the police department saying, 'There's a drone that's above. I don't know if it belongs to you guys,'" Lacy told KCTV5.

Lacy said the goal was straightforward: let residents look up any flight, see the pattern it flew and learn why it was in the air. He acknowledged the unease is understandable, recalling a time he was on his own deck and looked up to see an unidentified drone hovering. "So basically, I went inside," he said.

The tool already has real-world context to browse. On Aug. 30, Overland Park police received calls about a prowler pulling on car door handles near 104th and Consor early in the morning. Officers deployed a drone and a K-9 team. A Leawood Police Department drone, sent to assist, located the suspect hiding on a patio using heat-seeking technology and a night vision camera. The man was arrested.

On July 23, police used a drone to help locate a missing child. On July 31, a drone tracked a person accused of theft from a store.

The department's drone program uses Skydio's DFR platform. Chief Doreen Jokerst called the broader Skydio and Axon technology adoption "the largest technology project in Overland Park PD's history" in a LinkedIn post.

The department's press release said the tracker is part of an effort toward open, accountable public safety.

Residents can access the tracker at cloud.skydio.com/dashboard/overland-park-ks.