St. Louis Police Plan Drone Fleet to Reach Calls Faster Than Officers

ST. LOUIS—St. Louis police aim to launch a fleet of remote-controlled drones to respond to emergencies before officers can arrive on scene.

The department said Tuesday that drones would be stationed at docking stations throughout the city "based on crime trends, 9-1-1 call volume, response patterns and operational needs."

Chief Robert Tracy said police want six drones up and running by the end of the year. They anticipate the drones will be able to respond to calls "within minutes"—much quicker than officers—and help police survey the situation and collect evidence ahead of time.

"For these officers, it's a game changer," Tracy said. "Everybody wants to know what they're walking into."

The move is part of a trend among police departments and neighborhood groups in the region beginning to use drones as first responders. Last month, St. Charles County police announced plans to begin using drones to respond to 911 calls. And in the Hill neighborhood of St. Louis, community organizers are utilizing a drone to patrol the streets at night.

But the use of drones in police work has raised questions from activists, who say such surveillance could invade citizens' privacy — including during protests.

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he thinks the drones could have "chilling effects" on Americans expressing their First Amendment rights.

"Law enforcement will say they want 'situational awareness,'" Stanley said last month. "But they are only taking their own needs into consideration, and not giving sufficient consideration to the First Amendment."

The St. Louis proposal needs approval from the state-appointed Police Board, which is set to consider a contract Wednesday morning.

If approved, St. Louis police would purchase the drones from BRINC, a Seattle-based manufacturer of public safety drones.

The department anticipates it will cost more than $580,000 to purchase the drones and the radar needed to operate them, Tracy said, and as much as $20,000 a year to maintain the radar system.

The St. Louis Police Foundation and its donors are helping to bankroll the initial cost, he said, but after that the price will fall on the department.

"The police foundations help us get a lot of things started that we've rolled into our budget in future years," Tracy said, "and we're looking to do the same here."

The drones won't be weaponized and will only be used for surveillance, according to information posted on the department's website. They come equipped with advanced camera systems and thermal imaging cameras, allowing them to "track crimes in progress, locate people in dark or smoke-filled environments and see temperature differences during structure fires."

They could also be called out to fires, medical events and even during natural disasters, Tracy said, and will transmit data to police as well as EMS and fire fighters.

"These drones have the capability to pick up a dog or a human being because of body temperature," he said. "So if there's people that are trapped in rubble, you can actually identify where they are from the air."

In the Hill, neighbors have raised privacy concerns.

"Is anyone else incredibly disappointed in the adjacent neighborhood for implementing a surveillance program right out of every authoritarian scifi dystopia?" resident Eli LaChance said this month on Facebook.

The drones St. Louis police are looking at, though, won't be used for regular patrol, Tracy said — their batteries are simply too short-lived to allow them to fly around for an extended period of time.

The department is currently reviewing privacy policies governing the police use of drones in other cities across the country, Tracy said, and will have rules in place by the time the drones are in use.

"We're not monitoring people's faces or doing things like that for their First Amendment rights to protest," he said. "I know there's some privacy concerns, but we will have policy in place to address those situations."

Once the policy is finalized, it will be posted on the department's website, police spokesperson Mitch McCoy said.

"If it's something that the ACLU wants to have a meeting on, we would extend that," he said. "Just like we have extended that with the Board of Aldermen and their neighborhood groups."

The police board will hold a meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the contract for the drones.

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