Ready or not, here come the police drones

At least 1,500 law enforcement agencies around the country already own some drones. Credit: Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images

US pedestrians looking up towards the sky in the near future may soon notice more aerial drones buzzing overhead. While some of these drones may be surveying construction sites or delivering small packages, an increasing number of them will be controlled by law enforcement officers searching for signs of crime. 

Critics argue this new wave of police drones are under-tested and risk opening communities up to more pervasive levels of airborne monitoring. Lawmakers have dragged their feet on legislation that could meaningfully rein-in how and where these drones can harvest data, and police forces aren’t wasting time waiting for local authorities to shore up their rules. The police drones are coming whether the county is ready for them or not. 

Police drones have become more advanced and cheaper to produce 

Drones and robots in law enforcement aren’t entirely new. Police forces have used terrestrial, bomb-defusing robots for decades and aerial drones date back to 2005. In the time since then, SWAT teams have utilized military-grade, plane-sized Predator drones as well as smaller, more mobile machines to provide reconnaissance during mass gatherings and manhunts. Texas police even used a bomb-strapped robot to kill a suspected shooter in 2016. Aerial police drones typically aren’t outfitted with weapons, though some do possess the ability to remotely drop tear gas or other chemical irritants. Police previously used drones, but they were largely in edge cases, and out of sight. 

But now, aerial drone use is becoming both more common and more pervasive. Advances in drone technology mean newer models are lighter and faster than before, allowing them to capture high quality imagery at long distances without the need to constantly recharge. Modern surveillance drones, which look similar in size and form-factor to the kinds used by hobbyists and photographers, can use thermal imagery, break through glass, and in some cases, even open doors and fly inside of buildings. Pairing these fast-flying mobile security cameras with other more advanced detection tech like license-plate-readers or even facial recognition algorithms can give law enforcement far more advanced mobile surveillance. 

Drones are already aiding in criminal investigations 

Starting this month, according to Axios, police departments in Arizona will begin using an aerial drone from the public safety startup called Aerodome. It will reportedly track potential criminal suspects, search for missing persons, and potentially even engage in high-speed pursuits. The drone is expected to integrate directly with camera systems and gunshot detection software provided by the company Flock Safety. In theory, according to Axios, it could even use a license plate reader to detect a stolen vehicle pinned to an AMBER alert. An officer chasing a suspect on foot could also reportedly use their drone to fly above a rooftop and gain an aerial advantage within 90 seconds. Police in Scottsdale will reportedly use the drone first, with other cities across the state expected to follow later.

“It [the drone] is an immediate response,” Hawthorne, California Police Department Detective Sean Judd, who’s previously used the Aerodome drone in policing, said in a statement. “If I’m trying to focus in on somebody and zoom in on somebody and watch a person jump [over] walls, I’m going to be able to follow them without any kind of delay. That’s very important.”

Law enforcement in nearby Chula Vista, California have reportedly used drones to respond to serious incidents like alleged gun violence and fires, as well as noticeably less life or death scenarios like water leaks and even “loud music.” 

On the other side of the country, New York’s Police Department reportedly has a fleet of around 85 drones ready to fly. The drones have been deployed to monitor large public gatherings like protests and the New Year’s ball drop, as well as look for signs of so-called subway surfers riding on top of above ground trains. More recently, the  NYPD drew backlash from local residents and privacy groups last summer after they used the drones to “check on” backyard barbecue parties for signs of disruptions. 

New York Mayor Eric Adams defended the practice during a press conference at the time, insisting the drones wouldn’t be “looking into someone’s grill.” Adams’ familiarly flippant response didn’t assuage critics like New York Civil Liberties Union privacy strategist Daniel Schwarz, who accused the city of “playing fast and loose” with residents’ privacy rights. Those concerns have largely gone unaddressed. The NYPD’s use of drones reportedly increased by a staggering 400% between 2022 and 2023. 

“We’re not spying on anybody,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Katz Daughtry said in an interview with CBS News earlier this month. 

Examples like those could soon become commonplace around the country. Of the estimated 1,500 police departments that already use drones, just 15 of them had waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing them to fly beyond visual sight as of last year. That number is expected to rapidly increase in coming years which means more law enforcement agencies will possess the ability to deploy drones far and wide. As of this year, around two dozen law enforcement agencies reportedly have “drone-as-a-first-responder (DFR) programs” where police use them  to immediately respond to a perceived emergency, according to the nonprofit group DroneResponders Public Safety Alliance. 

Lack of oversight could lead to drone abuse, critics warn 

Privacy and civil liberties advocates worry this impending swarm of police drones are arriving on the scene without proper safeguards in place to limit their potential for abuse or misuse. No federal rules currently exist governing how US law enforcement use drones, which means rulemaking has largely been left to state and local authorities. 44 states currently have some kind of law or resolution mentioning drones, but these often vary widely from place to place. Only 15 states, according to a Business Insider analysis, have laws explicitly requiring a police warrant to deploy drones in target areas. Even then, each of those states allows for exceptions to those requirements. 

Police also often have more latitude on how and where they can operate drones than civilian hobbyists. FAA rules generally restrict recreational drone operators from flying above 400 feet, over groups of people, or near sports stadiums, unless they apply for specific waivers. Law enforcement agencies often have broader latitude to operate in these areas to conduct police work. 

Courts, similarly, have provided only limited guidance. In 2021, a court in Maryland ruled that a spy-plane program run for years by the Baltimore Police Department ran afoul of the 14th Amendment. In that case, a large plane outfitted with high powered cameras, flew high above a 32-square-mile section of the city and was reportedly able to track an individual’s movement for up to 12 hours per day. Though a significant decision, it’s unclear whether that ruling would apply to more modern fleets of smaller police drones used intermittently in first-responder scenarios. 

Critics worry this laissez-faire approach to using drones will lead to innocent people inadvertently having their identities sucked up into police databases. That mass monitoring, especially during protests or other large events, could have the effect of pressuring people to stay home. Rapid and constant deployment of drones in supposedly high-crime areas could subject certain ethnic groups and communities to disproportionate levels of monitoring based on limited evidence of wrongdoing. ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley, who has spoken critically of drones, wrote an essay last year urging policy makers to avoid “sleepwalk[ing] into a world of widespread aerial surveillance.” 

“We’re very concerned that we may be moving toward a future where we find ourselves constantly scanning the skies, seeing drones overhead, and feeling like the eyes of law enforcement are always upon us,” Stanley wrote in a blog post. “That’s no way for anybody to have to live.”

Stanley and other critics aren’t necessarily opposed to police drones unilaterally. Instead, they worry law enforcement groups could initially justify the drone deployment to assist in solving serious crimes, only to then gradually expand its use in more mundane aspects of everyday life. If left unchecked, Stanley warms, this gradual introduction of drones could lead to their pervasive use. There are also concerns drones sent on a reconnaissance mission for one purpose, may inadvertently collect incriminating visual footage of entirely unrelated individuals engaged in potentially incriminating acts, like drinking in public or running a red light. 

“It’s not hard to see how, once normalized by deployments such as DFR programs, police drones could become an increasingly common sight over American communities for a wide range of police purposes,” Stanley added.

Drones are just one of several maturing technologies reimagining policing in the 21srt century. Law enforcement around the country are already using AI-enabled gunshot-detectors, facial recognition and other biometric identifiers to identify potential criminal suspects, sometimes incorrectly. Predictive policing software, which controversially promises to use AI and big data analytics to somehow anticipate where crimes may occur, is already being used in major metropolitan areas to allocate resources and ultimately make arrests. Expanded use of drones could play a key supporting role in tech-centric policing by collecting real-world surveillance footage and images in quantities not previously possible.

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