On Narlikapi Avenue in Fatih an İstanbul police drone flashed siren lights and issued a warning over loudspeakers to passerbys: “This is a police drone, drinking alcohol in this area is prohibited,” followed by instructions to “leave the area immediately.”
The scene quickly spread on social media. Many users said that the scene felt very dystopian, directly out of a science fiction movie. Some raised concerns about surveillance more broadly.
According to Evrensel reporting, the drones, equipped with sirens, speakers and spotlights, have the capacity to operate in both daytime and nighttime hours due to thermal and night vision capabilities. They can also automatically track vehicles using an object tracking system.
Drone-backed police operation targets trans women in Beyoğlu: ‘We’re too afraid to work’
28 July 2025
İstanbul police said that the technology has been employed for about a year now and is being used across all 39 districts of the city. On July 18 2025, police utilized drones in an operation against trans sex workers in Beyoğlu. During the evening raid, drones recorded overhead while officers blocked all of the street entrances and exits to conduct house raids.
Police have also used drones in some high profile narcotics operations in other cities across Turkey.
İstanbul Police Chief Selami Yıldız praised the advanced level of surveillance technology owned by the İstanbul police department.
“We do not watch İstanbul with our eyes closed; we monitor it at many points with our urban security management system cameras and our unmanned aerial vehicle cameras,” Yıldız said.
İstanbul police perform ID checks on 450,000 people on Friday night ‘peace operation’
30 June 2025
Background
Mass surveillance and large-scale police presence has significantly grown over the years across İstanbul, especially in the form of large-scale ID checks. In one June evening operation police carried out more than 450,000 ID checks — proportionally about one person for every 30 residents in the metropolis. In another July 22, 2025 operation, İstanbul police detained 835 people after performing over 330,000 ID checks in one night. These surveillance initiatives tend to target young men and minorities in poorer neighborhoods, in addition to members of the LGBTI+ community. Reports indicate that drones have also been used in some police operations.
(İK)
Source: BIANET
