Edwardsville City Council Meeting
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EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville Police Department may soon get its first-ever drone pending an application for up to $18,000 in grant funding.
Edwardsville City Council members voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a resolution authorizing the Police Department to apply for a Pride in Service Grant from CSX.
Freight transportation company CSX offers the Pride in Service Grant to help first responders buy certain equipment, including drones. The Edwardsville Police Department will apply for a grant of up to $18,000 to purchase a new drone.
A memo to City Council members contained in Tuesday’s meeting packet outlines the benefits of a drone for the city’s police and fire departments, as the devices reportedly help both agencies with search and rescue efforts and more.
“A drone will be utilized to assist us in locating missing individuals, traffic and crime scene investigations, natural disasters, structure fires, and other related situations,” the memo states. “Utilizing a drone will further our ability to better search an area, save time, and reduce the risk of injury to our personnel.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Police Chief Michael Fillback said his department often has to rely on neighboring agencies with drones, such as the Glen Carbon and Troy Police Departments, which sometimes leads to delays.
“Some of the agencies around us have drones, so … a lot of times, we’ll ask them for their assistance,” Fillback said. “But a lot of times, other agencies, they’re not available – their drone may be down or their personnel’s not available to assist us ... you have a time delay as well. Having something that is more readily available to us as a city would allow us to have it when we need it, as well as sometimes lend assistance to other departments.”
The EPD is already training one officer to become a licensed drone pilot, and Fillback said he plans to train five or six additional officers to increase the department’s likelihood of having a licensed drone operator on duty.
Alderman William Krause asked if these drones would be equipped with facial recognition technology and what legal guidelines they would be subject to. Fillback said his department will not pursue facial recognition technology “at this time” and in the absence of city-level drone laws, will follow state rules and regulations concerning departmental drone usage. He added that the data from these drones will be publicly available under certain conditions and restrictions through the Freedom of Information Act, much like body camera footage.
If the department’s grant application is approved, Fillback said the funds could be awarded as soon as next month, January of 2026. The department is also exploring other funding options, including other potential grants.
A full recording of the Dec. 16, 2025 Edwardsville City Council meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
