The drones U.S. police are using are much more like the consumer-grade type you might find at a big box store, than multi-million dollar, higher-tech military drones. Generally, police drones don’t carry weapons and are used primarily for video surveillance. It is possible for small drones to deliver chemical irritants like tear gas, however, a technology that police in Israel have used against Palestinians.

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Devarakonda continued, “I am thrilled to have Russ, Matt and the entire Aerial Armor team join Dedrone. We are constantly looking for the finest talent in the market and Aerial Armor provides one of the best groups of individuals with a deep understanding of the cUAS space. I have a lot of respect for the business they have built and am looking forward to building the best-of-breed solution for our customers.”

“We have created a fantastic rapport with the team at Aerial Armor and are greatly impressed with their technology, expertise and the strong customer relationships they’ve built. As we come together under the Dedrone umbrella, we’re confident we will continue to find great synergies in our respective platforms and bring new innovations to market for our customers,” said Aaditya Devarakonda, CEO of Dedrone. “All of our customers around the world will reap the benefits of our more powerful C2 cUAS system, powered by inputs from a multitude of sensors including radio frequency (RF), radars and cameras in a single UI.”

According to data from the Chula Vista Police Department, it has sent drones to more than 16,000 calls in total, with an average response time of under two minutes. For reference, average response times using officers exceeded 20 minutes in 14 of 15 other departments included in a review by data analyst Jeff Asher earlier this year.

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The move is the latest in a series of developments following Dedrone’s growth in recent months, including a rapid increase in global demand for detection, tracking, identification, and mitigation technology to protect airspace. Its platform and products, including DedronePortable, are in use by governments around the world.

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Just this week, police departments in Salem, New Hampshire; Gresham, Oregon; and Luverne, Alabama announced the purchase of drones. More than 1,500 departments across the country now use them, “mostly for search and rescue as well as to document crime scenes and chase suspects,” according to a February report in the MIT Technology Review. Some agencies, like the New York Police Department, are experimenting with other uses, like public safety warnings during emergencies. It’s a new space where regulations and safeguards appear to be lagging behind adoption.

Police usingdronesfor surveillance

Jamiles Lartey Twitter Email is a New Orleans-based staff writer for The Marshall Project. Previously, he worked as a reporter for the Guardian covering issues of criminal justice, race and policing. Jamiles was a member of the team behind the award-winning online database “The Counted,” tracking police violence in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, he was named “Michael J. Feeney Emerging Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Many of the cities using drones in policing are doing so from so-called “real-time crime centers,” which are growing in popularity as well. These units function as centralized hubs to connect the various bits of surveillance and data that police collect from things like stationary cameras, drones, license plate readers and technology that listens for possible gunshots. Some centers can even integrate police body cameras and video from Ring doorbells at the homes of people who sign up.

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Dedrone most recently introduced DedroneDefender, a handheld, low-collateral mitigation tool designed for law enforcement in even the most complex of urban environments. Dedrone works across 40 countries and customers include four of the G-7 nation governments; nine U.S. federal agencies; more than 75 critical infrastructure sites; 20+ airports; and 50 prisons worldwide. The company actively provides counterdrone solutions for some of the most high-profile events around the world and works closely with more than 35 law enforcement agencies.

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“The ever-increasing threats to airspace make it clear that the world needs a strong counterdrone C2 platform — point solutions will no longer be enough. Dedrone offers a like-minded team in its approach to the future of airspace security, which is why this acquisition is an important one for our 100+ customers and team to continue to deliver the best possible solution for airspace security against the persistent and escalating threat of drones,” added Russ Haugan, CEO of Aerial Armor. “Together, our strengths will continue to provide best-in-class service to the venues, airports, federal entities and law enforcement agencies that rely on us for truly secure airspace no matter the perimeter size.”

Civil liberty advocates are less enchanted. In a report published on Thursday, American Civil Liberties Union Senior Policy Analyst Jay Stanley worries that these kinds of drone programs may normalize usage and “usher in an era of pervasive, suspicionless, mass aerial surveillance.” He notes far more invasive turns that police drone usage could take, including warrantless surveillance of specific people, crime “hotspots” or even whole neighborhoods or cities. Stanley wonders if drone usage won’t just become “another weapon in the war on drugs, in over-policing, in the targeting of Black, low-income and other vulnerable communities, and otherwise amplify the problems with the deeply broken U.S. criminal legal system.”

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Dedrone, the market leader in smart airspace security, today announced its acquisition of Aerial Armor, a leader in counterdrone systems and integrator of drone detection hardware. The acquisition will enable Dedrone to deliver the best-in-class technology platform to meet airspace security needs of the future as demand for counterdrone protections continues to increase in the US and around the world. As part of the acquisition, Dedrone will honor all Aerial Armor customer contracts and retain all employees, including CEO Russ Haugan and CTO Matt Altman. Customers of each company will continue with no changes to their solutions in the near term. Over time, Dedrone will leverage the best elements of both companies’ solutions, paving the way for customers to easily implement a multi-sensor fusion, cUAS (counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems) command and control (C2) platform into their security infrastructure.

Just what kind of transparency the public has into the kind of data these police efforts collect is still playing out. This week, a California appeals court agreed to hear a case brought by a journalist who filed a public records request for footage from the Chula Vista drone program. Art Castañares, publisher of La Prensa San Diego, asked for a month of video to “independently verify police officials’ assurances that they do not use the drones to spy on residents.”

“If they’d rushed into that with limited information about the call and he spun around because he’s scared of the cops and points the lighter at their general direction, we can see how easily that could become a tragedy,” a department official told the San Diego Union Tribune in 2020. Supporters also note that faster drone response times can aid investigations, and see the technology as a “force multiplier” that can help police address staffing shortages, and respond to potentially dangerous scenes without putting a human officer in danger.

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While drones don’t have the same capabilities as officers, the Chula Vista department and drone manufacturers say that their use can function as a de-escalation tactic. In one frequently cited example, 911 received a call about a man waving around a gun in front of a taco restaurant. A Chula Vista police drone arrived in 84 seconds, and before officers could make it onto the scene, the operator used the drone video to determine that the “gun” was actually a cigarette lighter.

The department denied his request, arguing that the video is “investigative” in nature and not subject to public records laws. The department does make drone flight path data public, along with the reason for the 911 calls that initiated the investigation. Over the past week, flights have been launched for reported robberies, domestic disturbances and assault, but also public indecency, welfare checks and “suspicious circumstances.”

Perhaps the most well-known police drone program in the country is run by the Chula Vista department in Southern California, which began its “drone as first responder” efforts in 2018. When 911 calls come in, the department routinely sends a drone first to assess what kind of human police response is necessary, if any. Most police drones are not used as first responders, it’s worth mentioning, but the approach is growing in popularity. In addition, the federal regulatory hurdles that limit such programs are likely to loosen in the near future.