After a decade of law enforcement using drones in the Bay Area, Alameda County embraces a next-gen technology

A man in a red hoodie jumped over fences and swiveled through alleys near th Avenue in San Leandro fleeing a suspected domestic violence event Above a drone followed him streaming live footage of his movements to pursuing police officers and leading them to a backyard where the suspect was hiding underneath a box This arrest last September came in part due to the Drone as First Responder DFR trial undertaking at the Eden Township Substation of the Alameda County Sheriff s Office At a meeting last month the Alameda County Board of Supervisors heard video testimony from the responding officer about the effectiveness of the drone involved in the chase Related Articles California police use drone to find burglary suspect hiding in ceiling of shopping center San Francisco s incredible beauty as photographed from above Because of the UAV unmanned aerial van I didn t have to worry about being ambushed or any threats close by because I had the eye in the sky he declared Though the sheriff s office has employed drones over the past decade this new model will be remotely launched from the Eden Township Substation to respond to developing crimes and exigency incidents over the next year promising police say to provide real-time reconnaissance to police and firefighters before they arrive and avoid unnecessary dispatches The Board of Supervisors voted - on Tuesday with Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas abstaining to enter a one-year contract with the Atlanta-based law enforcement company Flock Safety to provide a DFR system The operation s supporters such as Sgt Justin Brannon who heads the sheriff s office s Small Unmanned Aircraft System sUAS unit explained that having this kind of advance information of an matter is a tremendous advantage for officers attempting to diagnose a situation It s really been an invaluable tool for road safety law enforcement and fire operations Brannon reported DFR is the future Drones have been a tool for Bay Area law enforcement agencies for more than a decade now The San Jose Police Department was the first to jump into UAV space in when it incorporated a drone response for hostage situations and the agency s bomb squad Despite technological advances the idea then was basically the same as it is now send the drone to assess an matter and avoid putting community safety officers at peril Because federal funding supplied SJPD s drone other Bay Area law enforcement agencies were able to share it providing various hands-on experience to law enforcement authorities who presumed they were looking at the future of law enforcement Prior to working on the UAV unit I had very little experience with drones and saw them as a toy Brannon recounted Bay Area News Group But after five years in the drone unit my perspective has changed I ve seen firsthand how they save time reduce menace and even help save lives We ve used them to locate missing persons in areas too dangerous or remote to search on foot We ve provided real-time information during proceeding incidents that helped keep both deputies and civilians safe The Fremont Police Department and Fremont Fire Department began emerging the first joint DFR pilot activity in the country in December Officers stationed drones at fixed locations throughout the city which could be activated for incidents as soon as they come into the emergency dispatch center according to the city of Fremont s website The success of the pilot campaign led to the Fremont City Council approving the DFR effort in February of last year The San Francisco Police Department launched its DFR effort in March In the East Bay infamous Oakland businessman David Duong who the FBI charged with bribery in January gifted in drones to the Oakland Police Department in The Peninsula cities of South San Francisco and San Mateo also incorporated drones as a tool of law enforcement Elsewhere in Northern California residents of the rural public of Elk Grove south of Sacramento got their first taste of DFR when drones cleared about of calls for facility and arrived before officers at of incidents between May and September according to Elk Grove police evidence This led to faster response times more efficient use of tools and less waste of taxpayer money according to Brannon But the rapid adoption of this surveillance apparatus has also raised concerns among privacy experts Brian Hofer chair of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission and executive director of Secure Justice became a privacy rights advocate after famed whistleblower Edward Snowden published details of the National Precaution Agency s secret and vast surveillance of the American population in Since then he s helped craft cities privacy policies including Oakland s for law enforcement drones guidelines he says he wishes were followed by Alameda County as well We ve seen horror stories of police using surveillance tech and databases to improperly track people Hofer declared In an era of Trump the fact that we so-called sanctuary cities are building the surveillance system that Trump is going to use is a talking point that isn t getting enough media attention For instance Hofer points to a showdown over material collected by drones in the San Diego County city of Chula Vista where the police department denied a local journalist s residents records request to view law enforcement drone footage and determine if officers were violating the citizens s right to privacy The dispute turned into a court occurrence that reached the th District Court of Appeals which ruled in favor of the journalist Art Casta ares In Alameda County drone statistics is preserved on county servers for days and deleted unless that footage is being used as part of a criminal probe or an internal affairs research Hofer pointed out that the Oakland approach he himself helped draft in only allows for police to hold drone information for days unless it is part of an inspection He noted the effort to craft Alameda County s DFR guidelines which Hofer was not involved with was done in collaboration with the county counsel district attorney populace defender s office and the American Civil Liberties Union So could we have a better Alameda County agenda Absolutely I tried to get them to copy Oakland s and they only took pieces of it revealed Hofer We can draft it so police get the utility and we get the civil liberties protections Hofer explained any large records collection carries an inherent hazard that personal information can be accessed improperly whether that s by hackers stalkers or immigration enforcement administrators Brannon believes that the guardrails for the innovation are sound in Alameda County and that the benefits of DFR are clear And he wants to ensure that the community is educated about how and why law enforcement is using drones Whether it s locating a missing person responding to a fire or supporting a critical development this innovation improves safety for everyone in Alameda County Brannon stated I ve seen firsthand how drones can save lives and reduce exposure to both deputies and the citizens However none of that is worth it if we lose community trust