The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) highlighted the successes of its drone program during a presentation on Monday, attended by audience members from San Jose.
In one compelling video clip, police demonstrated how a drone monitored a suspect breaking into a car, coordinating in real-time with officers on the ground to facilitate an arrest. “This drone deployed immediately to the area and quickly observed the suspect exiting a tradesmen entrance with a bicycle,” an SFPD officer narrated. “The suspect then went back inside and emerged with a second bicycle.”
This presentation marked the next phase of the SFPD’s drone deployment, with drones now dispatched at the first report of potential trouble. This means that police are often able to respond from the air before ground officers arrive. “The drones are arriving before officers in many cases,” stated SFPD Chief Bill Scott. “There is no place in this city that our drones can’t reach within a couple of minutes.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed emphasized the regional impact of the drone program, stating, “It’s about the Bay Area as a region and the fact that together we can make the entire Bay Area much safer using technology.” She credited voters for approving the expansion of this technological initiative in San Francisco and hosted San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and members of the San Jose Police Department for the presentation. Both mayors underscored the necessity of new technology and collaboration to tackle evolving challenges.
“The reality is that these challenges are not contained within jurisdictional boundaries,” Mahan noted. “They do not respect where city and county lines end.”
However, the use of drones has raised privacy concerns among rights groups, particularly regarding the vast amounts of data collected. Advocates argue that drones could violate privacy rights, especially since the program was initially rolled out without official approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Josh Richman from the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned, “Drones and robots pose a multitude of privacy risks because they amass large amounts of personal data about identifiable people, including those engaging in constitutionally protected activity, even if they are not suspected of any crime.”
To address some of these concerns, the Board of Supervisors passed a measure last month that retroactively approved the drone program. Shortly after, State Attorney General Rob Bonta reminded all California law enforcement agencies in a memo to adhere to state laws requiring local official approval before implementing any so-called “military equipment,” including drones.
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