Police drone may respond to crime scenes, emergencies before Dayton officers under proposed program

“They don’t have to worry about the stop sign. They don’t have to worry about the traffic light. They don’t have to worry about negotiating the streets,” Hall said. “That coupled with some very, very good camera technology allows the drone to get eyes on a call extremely quickly — much quicker than an officer can."

Some law enforcement agencies say this technology is very helpful and effective and likely will be a big part of the future of policing.

“It’s irresponsible for local governments and state governments to be rolling out these types of technologies and using them with all kinds of privacy and surveillance ramifications with essentially no safeguards in place,” said Gary Daniels, legislative director for the ACLU of Ohio. “Look if you are going to use drones or automatic license plate readers or any number of these other types of technologies with these kinds of ramifications, then at a minimum you need some local laws in place.”

Dayton recently was awarded a $400,000 violent crime reduction grant from the state of Ohio to help pay for a new gunshot detection system, more automated license plate readers, enhanced ballistics analysis and a Drone as First Responder program (DFR). More than a third of the state funding would pay for the DFR program ($150,000). Police have been sharing information about the proposed use of these tools during community meetings, ahead of the department asking the city commission for authorization for their utilization.

A growing number of cities and police agencies across the nation are using drones to respond to 911 calls, including Cincinnati; New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Cincinnati says its autonomous drone program that launched in July gives police an overhead view of the scene before they arrive. The Cincinnati Police Department says this tool helps officers assess situations more accurately and respond more effectively.

Dayton police Maj. Hall said the drone the police department is looking at acquiring can travel about 50 mph and flies at about 400 feet in the sky. He said the drones the police department already uses fly at about half that height.

Under the proposed program, the drone would take off from a launch site in the city and would be piloted remotely by an officer in the police department’s Real Time Crime Center. Potential launch sites include the downtown safety building and fire stations around the city.

Hall said a drone can help officers quickly get information from a crime scene or a crime in progress, like visuals of the suspects or getaway vehicles or an idea about the direction that suspects fled.

He said a drone can rapidly provide police and emergency crews with important details about traffic crashes, fires, water rescues and other critical incidents. Police said a drone will not handle any 911 call responses on its own and will just aid the officers and emergency crews who respond.

Hall said video from the drone may help police determine if calls for service are an actual emergency. For instance, he said, police get many calls about a “person down” but officers who respond often find that the subject was just sleeping or resting and already is up and moving around or has walked away.

“A lot of the calls that we go on ... we get there and find out that this wasn’t quite the emergency we thought it was,” he said.

Dayton police said the state grant would cover first-year costs of the drone program, and second-year costs would be about $300,000.

Daniels, with the ACLU of Ohio, said that cities that use drones and other police surveillance technologies need to create laws, regulations and internal policies about how drones can and cannot be used.

But he said the government should not be permitted to monitor and document, without cause, legal activities like going to protests, political events, mental health treatment centers, gun stores and houses of worship like churches and mosques.

“The justification needs to be on the government to explain why they have to do this and why they have to use this technology‚” he said. “Think about about how your worst political enemies — the people you don’t like the most — can use this type of technology."

Crowell said she understands why people might be worried about their privacy, but she thinks a drone can help during emergencies by giving officers and responders a better idea of the situation more quickly.