ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The next time you call 911, you might hear a buzzing in the sky before you hear sirens. The Rochester Police Department has started using drones as first responders to some 911 calls.
RPD Chief David Smith spoke about the new pilot program at Thursday night’s City Council meeting. The chief wasn’t there asking for approval, though. He was there to ask for reimbursement for the officers clocking overtime to train on the drones.
RPD has used drones for years but not as first responders. They’ve been used at festivals and protests as a floating security camera and to help to find missing people, especially over the river or in the woods.
Now, if someone calls 911, a drone might get there first, depending on the nature of the call. The chief said it’s a national trend to use this tech to give real-time information about a scene. RPD is trying it out and they’re training more officers to use their existing machines.
Chief Smith says it can help with staffing shortages, quicken response times, and get human officers more information before they get to a scene.
“The drone arrives first, either sees nothing and is able to cancel the officers altogether, or is able to say here’s the fight. Here’s the folks who are fighting, and I see a gun. This person has the gun. That’s the idea behind it,” Chief Smith said.
City Council raised concerns over surveillance and privacy rights. So did the New York Civil Liberties Union in its report last week on statewide drone usage. But the chief says surveillance isn’t what the drones are being used for.
Not every officer can use a drone. Every drone operator needs a license, except in very specific and very limited circumstances. It can take a few weeks of studying to pass the test, which includes FAA rules and the test itself is several hours.
One more limitation is FAA regulations. Right now, the human operator has to be able to physically see the drone. They launch 911 call drones from RPD’s building, so their area of operation is pretty small, for now.
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