Olathe and Lenexa police departments are each weighing whether to let residents track police drone flights online, according to email responses reported in a Kansas City Star column by Toriano Porter published Sept. 10.

The consideration follows Overland Park's launch of a public drone transparency portal on Sept. 1.

Olathe Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Moncayo told Porter the department is looking into an online monitoring portal but has set no date. "We are currently researching and looking into implementing an online monitoring portal, but we do not have a timeline on when that would occur," Moncayo wrote in an email.

Lenexa police officer Danny Chavez told Porter a similar program is being discussed with the city's drone-as-first-responder vendor. No implementation date has been set. Chavez noted that Lenexa residents can already find information on when and where a drone was dispatched through the department's online calls-for-service log.

Both departments operate Drones as First Responders (DFR) programs. Olathe Police announced its DFR program launch on March 27. Lenexa's 2026 city budget included additional funding for its own DFR program.

The push toward public portals started when the Overland Park Police Department opened its DFR Transparency Page on Sept. 1. The page, powered by vendor Skydio, shows interactive maps of flight paths, start and end times, the purpose of each deployment and incident details including case numbers, according to an Overland Park Police Department press release.

Overland Park Police Chief Doreen Jokerst also recently directed an update to the department's critical incidents policy, Porter reported.

Sheila Albers, an Overland Park police accountability advocate whose son John was killed by a police officer during a mental health crisis in 2018, told Porter that Overland Park is ahead of other departments. She said only Overland Park and Topeka have formalized transparency commitments by writing new disclosure policies and publishing data on their websites.

Not all area departments are moving in the same direction. Kansas City Police Department spokesman Capt. Jake Becchina told Porter the department does not use an online database to track drone deployments. Prairie Village Police Department staff services manager Amy Arias said that department tracks flights internally but categorizes them only as suspicious activity, criminal or training. Those reports are not available to the public online.

Neither Olathe nor Lenexa has announced a timeline for launching a portal.