Drones as first responders have finally landed in Colorado.
Commerce City this month launched the state’s first program of its type, in which operators can pilot drones quickly across town to put electronic eyes on emergency calls — with the goal of giving first responders a critical heads-up on what they might encounter at a chaotic scene.
“I don’t have to put an officer in a car with a drone and send him to a location to launch the drone,” said Commerce City police Cmdr. Jeremy Jenkins, who oversees the nascent program. “We can just launch the drone.”
And Commerce City did just that on July 9 — the third day of its drone-as-first-responder, or DFR, operations in the city of 70,000. A licensed police drone pilot used a new DJI M30T drone to track a man on a stolen motorcycle until he stopped at a residence, where officers then used the element of surprise to confront and apprehend him without incident.
A convicted felon with three felony arrest warrants, the suspect was caught with heroin and meth, a stolen firearm and a revoked driver’s license, police said.
“It was a drone’s first participation in a felony arrest,” Jenkins said, noting there was no on-the-ground police chase or violent encounter. “That’s a high-risk arrest for our officers on the street.”
Commerce City may be early to the concept of using drones as first responders, but it’s not the only Colorado police force embracing the technology.
Castle Rock last month signed a $200,000 annual contract with Flock Safety Systems to deploy its own DFR system. It is set to go live next month. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office is considering starting its own effort, while a spokesman for Aurora told The Denver Post that “tests are ongoing with multiple vendors” ahead of any decision by the city.
The state’s largest city does not have a DFR program yet, but a Denver police spokesperson wrote in an unsigned statement to The Post that “it is being developed.”
“The program is likely to develop in phases over the next couple of years,” the statement said. “We are hoping to have a pilot program running in a few months’ time.”
Police departments across Colorado have long used drones to perform searches and rescues or to manage traffic. Some use them to aid in investigations or to monitor large crowds of people, including at protests.
But the idea of drones on standby, ready for instant launching from a stationary dock, is newer.
Civil liberties and privacy advocates preach caution.
“You’re putting police robotic devices above people’s homes and communities — that’s an inherently sensitive thing,” said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. “We are still in early days.”
Similar concerns have been expressed about some of Flock’s other products, including a network of cameras that read license plates in Denver and other cities. In May, the Denver City Council rejected a contract extension with Flock for that system, in part over concerns that federal authorities might access the data.
Launch from rooftops, always on
Commerce City has four drones in its program as part of a $150,000 annual contract the City Council approved last year with Houston-based Paladin Drones. They sit in standby mode in charging docks on different rooftops in the city, which Jenkins said enables quick citywide coverage.
Police officers with remote pilot certification from the Federal Aviation Administration guide the unmanned aircraft systems to the scene of a 911 call. Using the drone’s camera, officers on the ground who are heading to the scene can be alerted about what is going on and what to watch out for — be it a firearm, an accomplice or another developing hazard.
“Our hope is that the drone can reach any scene in less than three minutes,” Jenkins said. “Getting eyes on a situation before any officer gets there allows us to mitigate danger to our officers.”
The Commerce City Police Department received an FAA waiver to fly its DFR drones beyond the visual line of sight, meaning the pilot can operate the drone after it dips below the horizon and is no longer visible to the naked eye. Jenkins said pilots use the drone’s camera in concert with an integrated digital mapping system to navigate the airspace above Commerce City.
“The waiver allows us to reach more remote parts of the city,” he said.
Commerce City covers 36 square miles. Castle Rock, nearly 40 miles to the south, covers roughly the same area. Its contract with Flock will give the Douglas County town two DFR drones.
“The draw of this product is that it is staged in a dock and it’s on standby at all times,” said Castle Rock police Cmdr. Todd Brown, who will oversee the program. “It lands and charges in place.”
Castle Rock police have obtained a waiver from the FAA to fly at 200 feet above the ground, but town officials want to apply for permission for its drones to reach as high as 400 feet.
“At 200 feet, you can hear that drone,” Brown said, “whereas at 400 feet, it is considerably quieter.”
Chula Vista, California, is often seen as the pioneer in the field, having started its drone-as-first-responder program nearly seven years ago.
The Southern California city, located just a few miles from the Mexican border, has flown more than 22,000 DFR missions since 2018, police Capt. John English said. They have included calls for help, welfare checks and domestic violence incidents.
“Most of what we fly to could be considered disturbance calls,” English said.
One call in late 2023 stands out in his mind. It involved a motorist who drove off Interstate 5 and crashed on a ramp. The drone was able to use thermal imaging to quickly locate the burning car and guide officers to the trapped motorist, he said.
“They were able to pull this motorist to safety seconds before the vehicle became fully consumed,” he said.
Mass-surveillance threat?
English said he saw the drone program as a de-escalation tool, as it gives responding officers a better idea of the lay of the land before they get to a scene. But to allay civil liberties concerns, he said, the Chula Vista Police Department rolled out its program deliberately and with plenty of community input.
“You can’t just bring out the technology and expect the community to be supportive of it,” English said.
To that end, the city has pledged not to use the drones for surveillance or to weaponize them. And it posts every drone flight on its website.
“The public can see exactly where the drones flew and at what times and for what purpose,” he said.
The ACLU’s Stanley said an open approach to police use of drones is a must, and that also applies to the emerging first-responder programs.
“Are they being transparent about it? Are they publishing information about the flights?” he said.
Stanley worries about how long police agencies will retain drone video footage and how investigators might use it. He asked: Will artificial intelligence be used to tease out incidental discoveries — like, say, a marijuana leaf or a car with tinted windows — so police can come down on citizens who might not have had anything to do with the original call?
“The biggest danger is that it morphs into a mass-surveillance device,” Stanley said.
Jenkins, the commander with the Commerce City Police Department, said his department is putting in place guardrails to ensure the mission of the drones doesn’t creep into areas it ought not to be.
There is no plan, he said, to use the first-responder drones as surveillance tools. And when they’re flying, their pilots will be strictly fixed on the task at hand.
“When they are not at the call, the camera is forward-looking and heading to its dock,” Jenkins said. “We absolutely have to maintain our legitimacy with our public.”
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