Police Drones

An article on Gizmodo (July 11, 2018) points out that commercial drone maker DJI, after announcing a partnership with body camera manufacturer Axon, formerly Taser, is now offering law enforcement agencies two surveillance drones: the Phantom 4 Pro, eggshell white and equipped with image recognition software; and the more expensive Matrice 200 series, metallic grey and tested for resilience to harsh winds and rain. DJI furnishes the drones, while Axon integrates the data they collect with Evidence.com, its cloud storage system used for managing body camera footage. 

There are clear advantages to having drones available in your local police department or Sheriff's office. Used for search and rescue work, to survey damage following a disaster, or to inspect structures for safety all aid the local department and serve the community.

Privacy advocates however express concern that drones will be used for surveillance, and like many police technologies, there’s no unifying nationwide policy on drones. The capacities and capabilities of drones need to be seen not just in that single tool, but in how it fits into larger architectures of surveillance and information gathering. Rather than looking at these technologies individually, it’s best to look at them in tandem, especially since the point of Evidence.com is to join together footage from varying sources: CCTV, body cameras, drones, even cell phone videos submitted by the public. Useful when reconstructing a traffic accident, but deeply concerning if used as a surveillance tool to target the public.
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In 2013, Seattle ended their police drone program after it drew “tremendous, widespread concern among the general public.” The ACLU stated that “Drones would have given police unprecedented abilities to engage in surveillance and intrude on people’s privacy and there was never a strong case made that Seattle needed the drones for public safety.”

I think that there is a place for drones in public safety work. But the increase in public safety is far outweighed by the danger of misuse of drones as a surveillance tool. The ACLU paper, Protecting Privacy from Aerial Surveillance is worth reading to understand the privacy concerns around the police use of drones.