# LRPD sUAS Drone Unit A May 1, 2026 internal Little Rock Police Department email documents an active small-unmanned-aircraft-system (sUAS / drone) unit operated out of the department's Technology & Equipment Unit. The email, from Lt. Courtney Bewley with Sgt. James Phillips co-leading, describes recurring quarterly and in-service training, named instructors, and an in-progress effort to upfit specialized vehicles for the unit. The drone unit is a surveillance program adjacent to the department's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) work and is run by the same internal unit. ## What's inside The relevant record is a single forwarded email thread on pages 1558-1559 of "Emails 1-24.pdf." The original message is from Lt. Courtney Bewley (subject: "Required Reading- sUAS Quarterly Training and some updates"), sent May 1, 2026, and later forwarded internally on May 8, 2026 by an LRPD officer. The email addresses LRPD drone "Pilots," attaches a publication titled "Drone Laws for Arkansas- Legal Guide for UAS Pilots.pdf" for a quarterly classroom training, and includes an In-Service Training schedule with named instructors. The remainder of the chunk (Emails 1-24.pdf, pages 1401-1593) consists largely of unrelated Police1/Lexipol newsletters and Flock deconfliction advisories. ## Key takeaways - The drone unit is led from the Technology & Equipment Unit, with Lt. Bewley signing the email and identifying her title as "Police Lieutenant / Little Rock Police Department Headquarters Division- Technology & Equipment Unit" (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1559, "Police Lieutenant ... Little Rock Police Department Headquarters Division- Technology & Equipment Unit"). The same unit and lieutenant appear in the production's ALPR/Flock records, situating the drone program inside LRPD's surveillance-technology function. - Sgt. James Phillips co-leads the unit's training. Bewley writes: "If you have any feedback or ideas for upcoming training, please let Sergeant Phillips and me know." (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558, "please let Sergeant Phillips and me know"). - The unit runs recurring quarterly training plus an "In-Service" class taught by a rotating set of named LRPD instructors. The schedule lists instructors Bewley, McMullin, Clements, and Dillon across dated 8 a.m. sessions (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1559, "February 20th 8am: Bewley/McMullin ... March 6th 8am: Clements ... May 8th 8am: Dillon"). Bewley notes a credentialing requirement to teach: "A Professional Development certification is required to instruct the class." (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558, "A Professional Development certification is required to instruct the class"). - The training emphasizes legal currency, with the attached Arkansas drone-law guide framed as required reading. Bewley writes that the unit is "expected to be the experts in this area, so maintaining a strong understanding of both the legal and technical aspects of our assignment is essential." (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558, "we are expected to be the experts in this area, so maintaining a strong understanding of both the legal and technical aspects of our assignment is essential [sic]"). - The unit is upfitting vehicles for drone operations and has pending funding to expand. Bewley writes: "As you may have heard, Plummer's vehicle has been upfitted with a Truck Vault. We are currently exploring the possibility of upfitting specialized vehicles for the drone unit. If you have an opportunity to review his setup, I would appreciate your feedback. There is potential funding available to outfit an additional vehicle soon." (Emails 1-24.pdf pp. 1558-1559, "Plummer's vehicle has been upfitted with a Truck Vault ... There is potential funding available to outfit an additional vehicle soon"). The "Plummer" reference is to a department member; the record does not state a first name, and the production's known list spells the surname "Plummer" (see [[Christna Plummer]]) without confirming whether this is the same individual. - New pilots are being added through "SALT school." Bewley writes she has "also included our new pilots, as they will have completed SALT school prior to the training and, pending successful completion, will be joining the team." (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558, "they will have completed SALT school prior to the training ... will be joining the team"). ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Courtney Bewley]] — Police Lieutenant, [[Little Rock Police Department]] Headquarters Division, Technology & Equipment Unit; author of the May 1, 2026 email and a drone-unit instructor (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1559). - [[James Phillips]] — Sergeant, LRPD; co-leads the drone unit's training per Bewley (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558). - "McMullin," "Clements," "Dillon" — named LRPD in-service training instructors on the schedule (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1559). These individuals are not otherwise identified in this chunk and are not linked as separate pages. - "Plummer" — LRPD member whose vehicle was upfitted with a Truck Vault (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558). Possibly [[Christna Plummer]] but not confirmed in the record. - [[Little Rock Police Department]] — the operating agency. ## Concepts invoked - LRPD's drone unit is a surveillance program run by the same Technology & Equipment Unit responsible for the department's ALPR footprint, locating sUAS alongside [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]] capability under one organizational unit. - Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) vendor marketing: Outside this drone-unit email, the same PDFOI-2026-1874 production contains repeated DFR marketing aimed at LRPD personnel, including a Flock Safety + [[Blue to Gold LLC]] co-hosted DFR webinar series (these marketing items appear in other chunks of the production, not in the page-1558-1559 email cited here). This connects LRPD's existing in-house drone program to vendor efforts to sell drone/DFR product lines into the department. ## Events documented - 2026-05-01 — Lt. Bewley distributes "Required Reading- sUAS Quarterly Training and some updates" to LRPD drone pilots (Emails 1-24.pdf pp. 1558-1559). - 2026-05-08 — The email is forwarded internally within LRPD (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558). ## Cross-references - [[Little Rock Police Department]] — operating agency; same Technology & Equipment Unit appears across the production's ALPR/Flock records. - [[Courtney Bewley]] — also appears as a Flock LPR hot-list "Alert Owner" / contact in this production's deconfliction advisories. - [[James Phillips]] — drone-unit co-lead. - [[Blue to Gold LLC]] and [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] — vendors marketing Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) programs to LRPD elsewhere in this production. - [[Vendor Marketing Saturation and Competitor ALPR Pitches]] — context for the DFR vendor marketing reaching LRPD inboxes. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The DFR / [[Blue to Gold LLC]] / [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] marketing referenced above is NOT present in the page-1558-1559 drone-unit email; it appears in other chunks of this production and should be cited from those source pages rather than from this email. - The record does not state the procurement source, vendor, or model of the drones operated by the unit, nor the dollar amount or source of the "potential funding" for additional vehicle upfitting (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1559). - "SALT school" is referenced as a pilot-qualification pathway but is not defined in the record (Emails 1-24.pdf p. 1558). - Whether "Plummer" in this email is the same individual as [[Christna Plummer]] cannot be verified from this chunk. - The full roster of drone "Pilots" and the unit's operational deployment policy (when and how drones are flown, retention of drone-collected imagery) are not in this production.