--- title: More Than 500 US Public Safety Agencies Can Now Fly Drones Beyond the Operator's Sight description: The FAA has issued 535 waivers of the see and avoid rule to police, sheriff and fire agencies in 48 states, almost all of them since January. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) updated: 2026-08-01T11:19:11.426Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/faa-bvlos-waivers-500-public-safety-agencies image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/faa-bvlos-waivers-public-safety-79183.webp categories: Politics content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine schema_type: Article --- More than 500 American police departments, sheriff's offices and fire services now hold federal permission to fly a drone beyond the sight of the person operating it. Almost all of those permissions were granted in the past seven months. The permission takes the form of a waiver of 14 CFR 91.113, the right-of-way rule that requires every pilot to maintain vigilance “so as to see and avoid other aircraft”. Set that duty aside, with safety mitigations, and an agency can fly beyond visual line of sight, over people and over moving vehicles, at altitudes and distances that depend on what detection and avoidance equipment its aircraft carries. [The FAA’s published record of those waivers](https://www.faa.gov/uas/advanced_operations/part_91_waivers/waivers_issued) runs to 551 entries covering 535 separate waivers, held by 506 named agencies across 48 states. Without that relief, a public agency has two ways to put a drone in the air. It can fly under Part 107, the small drone rule, which covers aircraft under 55 pounds at or below 400 feet and permits visual line of sight operations only. Or it can fly as a public aircraft under federal statute, holding a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization that lets it self-certify its own aircraft and operators for government work. Part 91 waivers are not open to Part 107 operators, or to recreational flyers. ## Almost Every Waiver Was Issued This Year Exactly one of the 535 predates 2026. It went to the Schenectady Police Department in New York on August 6, 2025, and runs to August 31, 2029. The other 534 were issued between January 2 and July 7 this year: 97 in January, 100 in February, 124 in March, 103 in April and 88 in May. The busiest single day was May 1, when 45 were issued. The pace then fell away, with two waivers issued in June. The most recent batch, 20 waivers dated July 7, went to agencies including the Baltimore County Police Department in Maryland, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in California, US Customs and Border Protection, and the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District. ## Police Departments Hold 360 of the 535 City and town police departments, state patrol and state public safety departments, marshals and constables account for 360 of the waivers. Sheriff's offices hold 85, and fire departments and EMS bodies 41. The remaining 49 sit with a mix of federal, state and county bodies: US Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the corrections departments of New Jersey and Tennessee, New York City Emergency Management, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Sacramento County Probation Department, the Florida State Guard, and the mosquito control districts of Collier and Lee counties in Florida. California holds the most at 64. Texas has 42, New York 34, Florida 32 and Georgia 30. ## Most of the Waivers Expire in 2030 The terms run about four years, and the expiry dates cluster tightly: 124 waivers lapse on March 31, 2030, 103 on April 30, 100 on February 28, 97 on January 31 and 88 on May 31 of the same year. The FAA says it processes applications in the order it receives them. ## Congress Opened a Separate Waiver Route in 2024 Section 927 of the Reauthorization Act of 2024 lets the FAA approve certain drone operations by [waiver rather than through rulemaking or a formal exemption](https://www.faa.gov/uas/commercial_operators/section_927_waivers). The agency published a Federal Register notice on April 1, 2026 setting out how it applies that authority, and it weighs requests against four criteria: minimal impact, a high-value limited use case, an emerging use case, and other safety considerations. The safety standard is the one used for exemptions, that an operation would not adversely affect safety or would provide an equivalent level of safety, but a Section 927 waiver does not have to be in the public interest. An applicant files a concept of operations, an operations manual, emergency procedures, checklists, a maintenance manual, a training program, its flight history and a safety risk analysis. ## FAQ **Q: Is it legal to fly a drone beyond the operator's line of sight?** Not under Part 107, the small drone rule, which permits visual line of sight operations only, for aircraft under 55 pounds at or below 400 feet. Flying beyond it requires relief from the FAA. For qualifying public agencies that relief now comes as an expedited waiver of the see and avoid rule. Part 91 waivers are not available to Part 107 operators or to recreational flyers. **Q: Which agencies can apply for one of these expedited Part 91 waivers?** The FAA says the expedited process is for qualified public aircraft operators that also meet the statutory definition of a public safety organization. The published list is dominated by city police departments and sheriff's offices, with fire and EMS bodies and a long tail of other state and federal agencies. **Q: How long do these waivers last?** About four years. Almost all of those issued in 2026 expire on a month-end date in 2030. The single waiver issued in August 2025 runs to August 31, 2029.