The U.S. Drone Census.

How many drones are being deployed in the skies above the United States? How many local police departments are planning on using them to patrol street corners, and how many state disaster preparedness agencies are studying their use for emergency response? And how are all these agencies - from the tiniest towns to the most populous of states - planning on regulating drones to prevent abuse?

The Drone Census, a partnership between MuckRock and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), aims to answer these questions. Together, MuckRock and EFF are building a comprehensive database of all drones authorized to fly in domestic airspace. As of January 14, MuckRock has filed public records requests to 275 federal, state and local government agencies across the country. (The full list is available here.) Our initial agency leads came from a list released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation by the Federal Aviation Administration. The rest came from MuckRock users and citizens interested in finding out whether their local police, universities or other agencies have or are seeking unmanned aerial vehicles.

Want to know if a particular agency has plans for using drones, or what their drone policies are? Click here to submit your own public records request and help build the Drone Census database.

MuckRock has written briefs on the following agencies:

To date, MuckRock has received records regarding drones from the following agencies: