A person in a purple hoodie jumped over fences and swiveled by 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 law enforcement officials 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 in regards to the effectiveness of the drone concerned within the chase.
“Due to the UAV (unmanned aerial automobile), I didn’t have to fret about being ambushed or any threats shut by as a result of I had the attention within the sky,” he stated.
Although the sheriff’s workplace has employed drones over the previous decade, this new mannequin shall be remotely launched from the Eden Township Substation to answer lively crimes and emergency incidents over the following 12 months, promising, police say, to offer 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 regulation enforcement firm Flock Security to offer a DFR system. This system’s supporters, equivalent 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 actually been a useful software for street security, regulation enforcement and hearth operations,” Brannon stated. “DFR is the longer term.”
Drones have been a software for Bay Space regulation enforcement companies for greater than a decade now. The San Jose Police Division was the primary to leap into UAV area in 2015 when it integrated a drone response for hostage situations and the agency’s bomb squad. Regardless of technological advances, the thought 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 provided SJPD’s drone, 13 different Bay Space regulation enforcement companies had been capable of share it, offering some hands-on expertise to regulation enforcement officers who believed they had been taking a look at the way forward for regulation enforcement.
“Previous to engaged on the (UAV) unit, I had little or no expertise with drones and noticed them as a toy,” Brannon informed Bay Space Information Group. “However after 5 years within the drone unit, my perspective has modified. I’ve seen firsthand how they save time, cut back threat, and even assist save lives. We’ve used them to find lacking individuals in areas too harmful or distant to look on foot. We’ve supplied real-time data throughout lively incidents that helped hold each deputies and civilians protected.”
The Fremont Police Division and Fremont Hearth Division started creating the primary joint DFR pilot program within the nation in December 2022. Officers stationed drones at mounted places all through the town, which could possibly be activated for incidents “as quickly as they arrive into the emergency dispatch middle,” in keeping with 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 12 months.
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 integrated drones as a software of regulation enforcement.
Elsewhere in Northern California, residents of the agricultural neighborhood of Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, acquired 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, in keeping with Elk Grove police information. This led to sooner response occasions, extra environment friendly use of assets, and fewer waste of taxpayer cash, in keeping with Brannon.
However the fast adoption of this surveillance know-how has additionally raised considerations amongst privateness consultants. Brian Hofer, chair of the Oakland Privateness Advisory Fee and government director of Safe Justice, grew to become a privateness rights advocate after famed whistleblower Edward Snowden printed particulars of the Nationwide Safety Company’s secret and huge surveillance of the American public in 2013. Since then, he’s helped craft cities’ privateness insurance policies, together with Oakland’s, for regulation enforcement drones — pointers he says he needs had been adopted by Alameda County, as nicely.
“We’ve seen horror tales of police utilizing surveillance tech and databases to improperly monitor folks,” Hofer stated. “In an period of Trump, the truth that we so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ are constructing the surveillance system that Trump goes to make use of is a speaking level that isn’t getting sufficient media consideration.”
For example, Hofer factors to a showdown over information collected by drones within the San Diego County metropolis of Chula Vista, the place the police division denied a neighborhood journalist’s public information request to view regulation enforcement drone footage and decide if authorities had been violating the general public’s proper to privateness. The dispute changed into a courtroom case that reached the 4th District Court docket of Appeals, which dominated in favor of the journalist, Art Castañares.
In Alameda County, drone information is preserved on county servers for 60 days and deleted, until that footage is getting used as a part of a legal investigation or an inner 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, until it’s a part of an investigation. He stated the hassle to craft Alameda County’s DFR coverage, which Hofer was not concerned with, was achieved in collaboration with the county counsel, district lawyer, public defender’s workplace and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“So, might we’ve got a greater Alameda County coverage? Completely. I attempted to get them to repeat Oakland’s, and so they solely took items of it,” stated Hofer. “We are able to draft it so police get the utility, and we get the civil liberties protections.”
Hofer stated any giant information assortment carries an inherent threat that private data will be accessed improperly, whether or not that’s by hackers, stalkers, or immigration enforcement officers.
Brannon believes that the guardrails for the know-how 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 regulation enforcement is utilizing drones.
“Whether or not it’s finding a lacking particular person, responding to a fireplace, or supporting a essential incident, this know-how improves security for everybody in Alameda County,” Brannon stated. “I’ve seen firsthand how drones can save lives and cut back threat to each deputies and the general public. Nonetheless, none of that’s price it if we lose public belief.”
