The Palo Alto Police Department is exploring the possibility of acquiring drones for a variety of uses in police work and for other city departments.
Police Chief Andrew Binder said during a May 6 meeting of the City Council Finance Committee meeting that Palo Alto is one of the only police agencies in Santa Clara County that does not use drones in some capacity.
Assistant Police Chief James Reifschneider said in an email that the drones could be used in a variety of situations, including “searches for missing persons or fleeing suspects, reconnaissance during tactical operations, and aerial documentation and mapping of collision and crime scenes.”
Other city departments, including the Fire Department, Office of Emergency Services, Public Works, and Utilities, could also use them, Reifschneider said.
“As the Police Department considers bringing forward a proposal for City Council consideration pursuant to the city’s surveillance use ordinance, it will consider the ways in which this technology could be used to enhance the safety of officers, other city staff, and the community, while also respecting the privacy of residents,” Reifschneider said in the email.
Reifschneider declined to provide a cost estimate of the technology at this point because the department has not decided on the number or type of drones they would be using. He noted that PAPD is exploring the availability of grant funding that would cover some or all of the cost of the drones.
City staff discussed during the Finance Committee meeting how to balance the benefits of surveillance technology with the privacy and security risks they pose.
City Manager Ed Shikada said that the city’s surveillance ordinance – which governs the acquisition and use of technology that can gather information about individuals and groups – has constrained staff’s willingness to explore surveillance technologies. The City Council adopted the ordinance in 2018. It requires the city to issue annual reports detailing all of its surveillance technology and how it has been used.
The most recent report, which was issued in December 2024, includes technology such as AlertWildfire cameras in the Foothills fire safety, automated license plate readers and GPS devices that can be launched from police vehicles at fleeing cars.
“I don’t know if other cities have surveillance ordinances, but we are quite rigid in the way it’s defined,” Shikada said. “It may be a prudent preventative measure that other cities will encounter when they have leaks of data that may contain [personally identifiable information], but I think it is accurate to describe it as a constraint.”
Palo Alto City Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims noted that the PAPD’s research into drones should contain a “hefty bit of page allocated to privacy and surveillance concerns” because of concerns from city residents around these issues.
In Redwood City, the city council approved the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems – a term that refers to drones – for police operations. Redwood City Lieutenant Police Officer Jeff Clements said the department is still in the procurement process and has not yet acquired any devices. Anticipated use cases of the technology include using drones as a first responder, search and rescue operations, enhanced situational awareness during critical incidents, and crime scene documentation, among other situations.
Menlo Park Police Department spokesperson Nicole Acker said that MPPD does not currently use drones, but the Menlo Park Fire Protection District does. The fire district uses the technology to assist with search-and-rescue operations and map vegetation density to identify wildfire threats.
The Mountain View Police Department also uses UAS for similar operations, Police Media and Public Relations Analyst Monica Leon said.
“When deployed, UAS are used to reduce risk and enhance public safety,” Leon said in an email. “They provide responding officers with improved situational awareness from safe positions, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively and bring tense, rapidly evolving incidents to peaceful resolutions.”
This story originally appeared in Palo Alto Weekly. Hannah Bensen is a staff writer for Embarcadero Media covering Palo Alto.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.