Scottsdale Police will have extra crime-fighting eyes in the sky when the department's " drones as first responders " program launches in the coming days.
Why it matters: This new drone program has the potential to disrupt crimes in progress, keep officers safe during high-risk situations and deter people from perpetrating crimes within the city limits, Scottsdale Police chief Jeff Walther told reporters Tuesday.
The big picture: Many Valley police departments have experimented with drone-assisted policing for years, but Scottsdale is the first agency in Arizona — and one of the first in the country — to deploy drones without an officer on site.
How it will work: When a resident calls 911 and reports a crime, officers in the Real Time Crime Center can immediately deploy an Aerodome drone stationed atop a Scottsdale building and fly it to any destination in its boundary area within 85 seconds. A link to the drone's livestream will be instantly sent to responding officers.
- If the department currently wants to use a drone to provide officers with an aerial view of a crime scene, they have to wait for an FAA-licensed officer to arrive on the scene and deploy it.
Between the lines: The drones will work in tandem with license plate recognition technology by Flock Safety that Scottsdale Police deployed more than a year ago.
- Currently, the license plate detectors alert the department if a stolen vehicle or vehicle associated with an Amber Alert is spotted in the city, and an officer will deploy to the area.
- The new program will enable officers to deploy a drone to track the vehicle as soon as they're alerted of the license plate sighting, increasing the chances a suspect will be located, Flock Safety director of real-time safety Dalton Webb told Axios.
State of play: The city's starting with a single Aerodome drone to be stationed atop Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in the next five to 10 days.
- The drone will be able to fly within a 3-mile radius, but its cameras can provide a view of about a mile past its boundary, Aerodome CEO Rahul Sidhu told Axios.
- Scottsdale Police assistant chief Rich Slavin said more than 50% of all calls for service in Scottsdale occur south of McDonald Drive, which is why the department chose this area to launch the program.
Friction point: Drones are gaining popularity within police departments, but they're also raising serious privacy and Fourth Amendment concerns .
- Slavin said Scottsdale's drone policy prohibits officers from using drones to record or photograph people in private areas, like backyards.
- Additionally, the drones will have front-facing cameras only while flying to a destination and will not provide a downward view until they reach a scene.
The bottom line: "This really is designed to be a force multiplier. It's not there to patrol over the community. That's not how it works," Slavin said.
What's next: Walther said the plan is to deploy five or six additional drones in the coming years so that eventually the entire city will be accessible to police by drone.
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