A person in a crimson hoodie jumped over fences and swiveled by means of alleys close to one hundred and sixty fifth Avenue in San Leandro, fleeing a suspected home violence incident. Above, a drone adopted him, streaming reside footage of his actions to pursuing cops and main them to a yard the place the suspect was hiding beneath a field.
This arrest final September got here partly as a result of Drone as First Responder (DFR) trial program on the Eden Township Substation of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Workplace. At a gathering final month, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors heard video testimony from the responding officer concerning the effectiveness of the drone concerned within the chase.
“Because of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), I didn’t have to worry about being ambushed or any threats close by because I had the eye in the sky,” he stated.
Although the sheriff’s workplace has employed drones over the previous decade, this new mannequin will probably be remotely launched from the Eden Township Substation to reply to lively crimes and emergency incidents over the following yr, promising, police say, to supply real-time reconnaissance to police and firefighters earlier than they arrive and keep away from pointless dispatches.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 on Tuesday, with Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas abstaining, to enter a one-year $600,000 contract with the Atlanta-based legislation enforcement firm Flock Security to supply a DFR system. This system’s supporters, comparable to Sgt. Justin Brannon, who heads the sheriff’s workplace’s Small Unmanned Plane System (sUAS) unit, stated that having this sort of advance data of an incident is an amazing benefit for officers making an attempt to diagnose a state of affairs.
“It’s really been an invaluable tool for road safety, law enforcement and fire operations,” Brannon stated. “DFR is the future.”
Drones have been a software for Bay Space legislation enforcement businesses for greater than a decade now. The San Jose Police Division was the primary to leap into UAV area in 2015 when it included a drone response for hostage conditions and the company’s bomb squad. Regardless of technological advances, the concept then was principally the identical as it’s now: ship the drone to evaluate an incident and keep away from placing public security officers in danger.
As a result of federal funding equipped SJPD’s drone, 13 different Bay Space legislation enforcement businesses had been capable of share it, offering some hands-on expertise to legislation enforcement officers who believed they had been the way forward for legislation enforcement.
The Fremont Police Division and Fremont Hearth Division started growing the primary joint DFR pilot program within the nation in December 2022. Officers stationed drones at mounted areas all through the town, which could possibly be activated for incidents “as soon as they come into the emergency dispatch center,” based on the town of Fremont’s web site. The success of the pilot program led to the Fremont Metropolis Council approving the DFR program in February of final yr.
The San Francisco Police Division launched its DFR program in March 2024. Within the East Bay, notorious Oakland businessman David Duong, who the FBI charged with bribery in January, gifted $80,000 in drones to the Oakland Police Division in 2024. The Peninsula cities of South San Francisco and San Mateo additionally included drones as a software of legislation enforcement.
Elsewhere in Northern California, residents of the agricultural group of Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, received their first style of DFR when drones cleared about 24% of requires service and arrived earlier than officers at 74% of incidents between Might and September 2024, based on Elk Grove police knowledge. This led to quicker response occasions, extra environment friendly use of sources, and fewer waste of taxpayer cash, based on Brannon.
“We’ve seen horror stories of police using surveillance tech and databases to improperly track people,” Hofer stated. “In an era of Trump, the fact that we so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ are building the surveillance system that Trump is going to use is a talking point that isn’t getting enough media attention.”
As an illustration, Hofer factors to a showdown over knowledge collected by drones within the San Diego County metropolis of Chula Vista, the place the police division denied an area journalist’s public information request to view legislation enforcement drone footage and decide if authorities had been violating the general public’s proper to privateness. The dispute changed into a court docket case that reached the 4th District Court docket of Appeals, which dominated in favor of the journalist, Artwork Castañares.
In Alameda County, drone knowledge is preserved on county servers for 60 days and deleted, except that footage is getting used as a part of a felony investigation or an inside affairs investigation. Hofer identified that the Oakland coverage he himself helped draft in 2022 solely permits for police to carry drone data for five days, except it’s a part of an investigation. He stated the trouble to craft Alameda County’s DFR coverage, which Hofer was not concerned with, was executed in collaboration with the county counsel, district lawyer, public defender’s workplace and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“So, could we have a better Alameda County policy? Absolutely. I tried to get them to copy Oakland’s, and they only took pieces of it,” stated Hofer. “We can draft it so police get the utility, and we get the civil liberties protections.”
Hofer stated any giant knowledge assortment carries an inherent threat that private data could be accessed improperly, whether or not that’s by hackers, stalkers, or immigration enforcement officers.
Brannon believes that the guardrails for the expertise are sound in Alameda County and that the advantages of DFR are clear. And he desires to make sure that the general public is educated about how and why legislation enforcement is utilizing drones.
“Whether it’s locating a missing person, responding to a fire, or supporting a critical incident, this technology improves safety for everyone in Alameda County,” Brannon stated. “I’ve seen firsthand how drones can save lives and reduce risk to both deputies and the public. However, none of that is worth it if we lose public trust.”
