Ky. City Wants to Expand Drone Fleet to Respond to 9-1-1 Calls
What to know
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The Lexington Department of Public Safety is considering a drones as first responders program that would deploy leased drones to priority 9-1-1 calls to assess emergencies before police, fire or EMS arrive.
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City officials plan to test drones from multiple vendors this winter and spring before seeking funding approval.
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Public safety leaders said the program would improve response efficiency amid rising call volume.
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Lexington’s skies could soon be host to new drones flying to emergency situations across the city.
The Lexington Department of Public Safety wants to join a growing number of municipalities using drones to respond to 9-1-1 and emergency dispatch calls. If approved, the drones would be leased by the city from a private company, similar to Flock license plate readers and the Fusus security footage system.
Public safety officials will test drones from various vendors this winter and spring, after which the department plans to ask the council to approve funding for a lease agreement with a vendor, city officials said last week.
But emergency officials declined to share how much the program will cost or give an estimate. The final contract price will depend on which vendor Lexington chooses and how many drones are acquired, officials said.
Drones as first responders are flown to the site of priority calls to assess the situation before police officers, firefighters or emergency medical crews arrive on the scene. Priority calls are those that involve a potentially life-threatening situation, like a major car crash or shooting.
The drones capture live footage and images as they fly. Remote pilots and responders en route to the scene can evaluate the footage to determine what resources — vehicles, equipment and personnel — are needed to address the call. Louisville, Georgetown and the University of Kentucky have deployed similar drone programs recently.
According to public safety leaders with the city, the program’s primary aim is efficiency.
“With increasing call volume on both the fire and law enforcement sides, we know that we have to be as efficient as we possibly can,” Lexington Fire Chief Jason Wells said, “so a program like this aerial support program allows us to right size our response.”
The Lexington Police Department has used drones in limited situations since 2018. The aircraft are frequently used for bomb threats and other hazardous material situations, and occasionally used to locate missing people, runaway suspects and to patrol outdoor public events with more than 5,000 attendees.
What will Lexington use the new drones for? What about policies to prevent over-policing?
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Acquiring drones as first responders would be the first major expansion in public safety technology since the city acquired Flock license plate reader cameras in 2022 and Fusus security footage software in 2023.
The acquisition and widespread use of the city’s Flock camera fleet sparked privacy concerns, however, especially in minority neighborhoods worried about increased surveillance and over-policing. Lexington has 125 Flock cameras, and the city says they are placed in areas with higher violent-crime rates.
Commissioner of Public Safety Ken Armstrong told the Herald-Leader drones will not be stationed based on crime rates because they will be used for emergencies. Instead, the drones will be placed in locations that optimize each device’s flight coverage.
They also won’t be integrated with license plate readers or with Fusus, nor will they be used for general surveillance, officials said.
The Fusus software serves as a consolidated, searchable database that integrates Flock camera images, footage from traffic and security cameras, and footage from private residents and businesses who have volunteered to link their personal cameras with the platform.
“(The drones are) not designed for long term surveillance or anything along those lines,” Armstrong said. “This is a quick response drone that has a flight time, depending on weather conditions, of 20, 30, maybe 40 minutes if you’re very lucky. So utilizing something that for surveillance purposes just wouldn’t be wise.”
Only trained and certified personnel would be able to operate the drones, and any use not associated with a specific dispatch call must be approved by Armstrong and either Wells or Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers, depending on the nature of the situation.
Armstrong told the Herald-Leader a pilot could initiate a drone flight without prior approval, but any flight that does not have a specific dispatch code or prior approval would be flagged immediately.
Additionally, officials said the city will launch a transparency page on its website showing the flight paths and types of situations where drone were deployed. The footage is subject to open records request.
These accountability measures are not official, however. Officials say a new policy regulating drone use by public safety personnel will be written once a vendor is selected. Armstrong said they cannot write a policy before they have a vendor in place.
Weathers is confident the department’s security protocols are sufficient to catch any misuse of the drones by public safety personnel.
“The system that we have works,” Weathers said. “With body cameras, we’ve had those for almost 10 years. (We’ve had) one issue during those 10 years. I can’t say the system is broken.”
That issue was an October policy violation by Lexington Officer John McFaull, who accessed body-worn camera footage of a shooting he was not involved in and not authorized to access. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council initially rejected a discipline recommendation against McFaull on the grounds it was not harsh enough, but approved a three-day, unpaid suspension at its Dec. 2 meeting.
No outside agency or entity has automatic access to Lexington’s body camera footage, Flock camera images or future drone footage, Armstrong said.
“There are some investigations that we’re going to do where federal agencies like the FBI or DEA might pick it up, but that information is going to belong to us,” Weathers said.
The drones will not use any facial recognition technology or any artificial intelligence and will not be armed with weapons, according to Armstrong.
The city is hosting four community meetings to gather input on the drone program before a committee introduction in February:
- Monday, Jan. 12 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Tates Creek library branch
- Tuesday, Jan. 13 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Northside library branch
- Wednesday, Jan. 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Marksbury Family library branch
- Thursday, Jan. 15 from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Lexington Senior Center
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