A drone could be the first responder to a 911 call in the city of St. Louis starting later this week.
The Board of Police Commissioners is expected on Wednesday to approve policies governing the drone as first responder program for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The drones could start flying to calls shortly after.
"When someone calls 911, better information can help us deliver the right response," Chief Robert Tracy said Monday at a media availability outlining the program. "A drone may arrive before officers and provide a view to the Real-Time Crime Center of what's happening. That can help us locate someone who needs help, identify a threat, and determine what resources are needed. Saving lives will guide our priorities."
Privacy concerns
The drones will be operated from the crime center at police headquarters and will fly from docking stations to the scene of an incident using GPS guidance. The department will eventually roll out a portal that will enable people to track the drones' flight paths.
According to the policy, the drones cannot be armed, and the department says they will not be used for routine surveillance. They also cannot be equipped with facial recognition software without the adoption of a new policy.
Jay Stanley, a privacy expert with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was pleased the department had explicitly ruled out routine surveillance in the policy. But he said there were still unanswered questions around matters such as data retention and how the recordings can be used.
"They shouldn't be taking all this video that they've collected, which is completely doable with today's technology, and running it through face recognition, using AI analysis to search for various people," he said.
Stanley is also concerned about the use of drones to monitor protests. The policy outlaws using drones to interfere with "lawful First Amendment activity," but says they can be used to observe a rally or demonstration so long as the use is "tied to a legitimate public-safety purpose and conducted in accordance with law and Department policy."
"People outside exercising their First Amendment right to self-expression and to assembly can be a very sensitive thing," Stanley said. "It's one of the sacred things about a democracy. But we have not seen law enforcement exercise the restraint that I think is in order around that kind of surveillance."
The department first approved the drones as a first responder program in May. Officials spent the last six months reviewing policies from other cities and getting input from neighborhood groups.
"This is not the first time we're talking about this," Tracy said of the policy.
Mayor Cara Spencer, who has frequently criticized the board and the department for a lack of transparency on important matters, said in a statement that she received the policies at the same time on Monday as the media.
"I will be reviewing the draft and look forward to analyzing the details in advance of Wednesday's meeting," she said.
The SLMPD secured funding from the St. Louis Police Foundation to purchase the six drones and a radar system that lets officials see all drones in the sky to avoid conflicts. Four are ready to fly as soon as the policies are approved – two are docked at Central Patrol in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood and two at North Patrol near the Mark Twain neighborhood. The department is working to install the system at South Patrol in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Officials said they hoped the foundation would continue its support of the program in the future. The department may also use its share of $300 million in federal funding to purchase additional drones or docking stations.
The SLMPD is not the first department in the St. Louis area to unveil a drone program. Two departments in St. Charles County launched the technology in the spring. St. Louis County and the St. Louis Fire Department have also expressed interest in drones as first responders.
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