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Tethered drones

Air

Last reviewed: 2026-10-27Legal review: unverifiedCapability or investigative question
Evidence rule

This page is public-interest research. An argument grade is not a court finding. A watchdog page describes the device. It is not proof a Nevada agency bought it or turned a feature on. A product description is not a Nevada practice. Agencies are not merged: the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Clark County School District, the City of Reno, and the Nevada Department of Public Safety stay separate. A hotlist hit is not a confirmed crime. Legal review of this page is unverified.

What it does

A tethered drone is tied to the ground by a thin power line so it can stay up without landing to change batteries. EFF describes that design. The aircraft can watch one site for a long time. The tether is the difference from a free-flying drone.

Privacy watchdog concerns

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation. Drones and Robots. EFF says police drones can carry cameras, thermal sensors, plate readers, Wi-Fi sensors, and other tools, including tethered aircraft and drone-as-first-responder docks, and that this enables surveillance of people who are not suspects. EFF also wrote that, as of late 2022, the Clark County Sheriff in Nevada planned to buy 400 drones for first response. This page has not reviewed that purchase. The sentence is EFF’s claim, not a contract, and it is not relabeled here as an LVMPD deployment.

Constitutional issues

Unresolved question

Fourth Amendment, Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18

Warrant practice not established for a Nevada agency

Tethered drones: No Nevada tethered drone is documented. The Reno snippet names drones and does not name a tether. Florida v. Riley does not decide this design.

Statutes attached to read, not findings.

  • NRS Chapter 239. Nevada public-records law is the route to ask for contracts, policies, and logs. Citing it is not a finding that a surveillance practice is unlawful.
  • Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18. State search-and-seizure provision. This page does not quote the section. No section anchor was verified. It is listed only where a search question is actually implicated.
  • 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A civil remedy for a deprivation of federal rights under color of state law. It is not a warrant statute, and it does not itself make a surveillance practice unlawful.

Nevada use

Not documented on this page.

Capability only.

See also: Drones

Next record

Tethered drones: Do not infer a tether from the word drones.

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