FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County Sheriff announced a first of its kind plan, using new technology, to keep contraband out of jail.
On Thursday, Sheriff Pat Labat shared how the sheriff’s office is enacting a new strategy to help deputies prevent contraband from getting into the Rice Street Jail.
The plan? Use drones to keep drugs out of the jail, and inmates’ hands.
Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach was at the jail, where Labat showed how the Fulton Count Sheriff’s Office plans to use drones as first responders, and keep an eye on the jail from the sky.
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“This use of technology is arguably what every jail should be looking at,” Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said at the briefing.
Through a new partnership with Flock Safety, FCSO will take the fight against drones delivering contraband to the skies.
Labat says in the last six months of 2025, the sheriff’s office saw nearly 300 illegal drone flights in and around the Rice Street Jail.
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“This has been the bane of some our existence,” Labat said. “We’ve had everything from chicken sandwiches to cigarettes to tools to take the jail apart.”
Labat said the drones will be playing defense, but not to take other drones out, just to have eyes in the sky.
“Be able to give counter-drone surveillance in place so we can actually find the operators,” Labat said.
The Flock drone can search where deputies can’t, using thermal imaging and even getting a lock on where a drone operator may be hiding.
Ultimately, Labat said the drones will protect the public and deputies, making the jail safer.
Langley said the new program is preventative.
“For me, this provides an opportunity for the sheriff, to not just stop this from happening, but prevent it from happening in the future,” Langley said. “By making it known if you try to bring illegal contraband into this jail, you will be held accountable.”
FCSO will use the Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) system from Flock to strengthen jail security. Officials said the program is the first of its kind in the United States and will use the Flock Aerodome system.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement after the briefing that drone-delivered contraband was even a concern highlighted in a federal monitor report on the jail, published as part of the consent decree between Fulton County and the U.S. Department of Justice over civil rights violations at the jail.
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