Law enforcement agencies in Colorado intend to start using drones to respond to 911 calls.

The Denver Police Department (DPD) is among the agencies that intend to utilize the dystopian technology.

“This really is the future of law enforcement at some point, whether we like it or not,” Sgt. Jeremiah Gates said, according to The Emergency Drone Responder.

Gates is the head of the drone unit at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.

The Emergency Drone Responder reports:

Currently, at least 20 agencies in Colorado’s Front Range utilize drone technology for specific tasks, such as searching for missing persons, tracking fleeing suspects, mapping crime scenes, and providing aerial surveillance during SWAT operations. Now, the sheriff’s office is contemplating using drones to handle some 911 calls, providing valuable information from the scene before deploying officers.

Moreover, dispatching drones to less urgent calls could allow officers to focus on more critical situations.

“I could fly the drone over (a reported suspicious vehicle) and say, ‘Hey, that vehicle is not out of place,’ and I never had to send an officer over to bother them and I can clear it with that,” Gates explained to The Denver Post. “It’s saving resources.”

Despite the potential benefits, Laura Moraff, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, expressed concerns about the implications of widespread drone usage by government agencies on individual freedoms.

“We’re worried about what it would mean if drones were really just all over the skies in Colorado,” Moraff said to The Denver Post. “We are worried about what that would mean for First Amendment activities, for speech and organizing and protesting — because being surveilled by law enforcement, including by drones, can change the way people speak and protest.”

According to Fox News, a $100,000 grant from the Denver Police Foundation will help expand the DPD’s drone program.

The police department halted usage of its only drone in 2018 due to constitutional concerns.

Many Americans have legitimate privacy concerns and the expansion of the surveillance state via drones.

Per Fox News:

“The long-term scope of what we are trying to do is drones as first responders,” Phil Gonshak, director of the department’s Strategic Initiatives Bureau told The Denver Post. “Basically, having stations on top of each one of our districts so we can respond with drones to critical needs or emergencies that arise throughout the city.”

“We would never simply replace calls-for-service response by police officers,” he continued. “The DPD would respond to any call for service where someone is physically requesting a police officer on scene. But if there was a fight at Colfax and Cherokee and we put a drone in the air and there is no fight and nothing causing traffic issues, then we would reroute our police officers to other emergent calls.”

Gonshak said the DPD hopes to create a public-facing dashboard which would allow residents to track Denver police drone flights to ease concerns about potential violations of people’s personal freedoms.

 

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