Oregon police release video of man shooting at police drone, swat team pinning him and his tractor a

Our Take

Credit to KRCG 13 for getting this footage out, because it's a rare unfiltered look at how often drones now fly alongside patrol cars and SWAT teams. The Erik Shunn standoff is extreme — a man allegedly firing over 200 rounds, using a tractor as a barricade, already barred from owning guns — but the backdrop matters as much as the headline. A police drone was overhead recording the entire incident, part of the same wave of always-on aerial and camera tech that departments are deploying nationwide, often without local ordinances or public hearings to set limits.

Flock Safety and similar companies aren't just selling license plate cameras anymore; drones-as-first-responder programs are becoming standard add-ons, feeding video straight into the same surveillance networks we track. When the public only sees these tools in a dramatic armed standoff, it's easy to miss how routinely they're used for far more mundane calls — and how little oversight exists once a department buys in.

We keep pushing for transparency precisely because incidents like this get the cameras rolling in the news, but the everyday deployment stays invisible. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your area, and visit take-action if you want your city council to actually vote on this stuff before it becomes routine.