Three Palos Verdes Peninsula cities and Lomita are joining forces in a drone program to combat crime.
At its Aug. 18 meeting, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council voted to approve participating in a proposed Unmanned Aerial System Drone Program (UAS) that will be overseen by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lomita Station.
The Rancho Palos Verdes council approved the Memorandum of Understanding with Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Lomita.
The Rolling Hills Estates City Council will be deliberating the proposed MOU at its Tuesday, Aug. 25 meeting, according to Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis, in a August. 20 email.
Rolling Hills Estates city staff recommends approval of the MOU, according to the Aug. 25 staff report.
“The Drone Program is intended to provide trained Lomita Station personnel with real-time aerial information to support emergency response, search and rescue operations, traffic collision documentation, critical incident management, and other authorized law enforcement activities,” reads the staff report.
Rolling Hills City Manager Karina Bañales said in an Aug. 20 email that the Rolling Hills City Council will be discussing the MOU at its Monday, Aug. 24 meeting.
In a Aug. 21 email, Sgt. Peter Velasco, Jr., with the South Patrol Division Lomita Station Detective Bureau, said, “We are very excited that we will be able to move forward with the drone program,” and said that the city of Lomita “already approved their participation with the program.”
“All of our cities have been very supportive and are also excited for the program,” said Velasco Jr. in the email.
The other police force on the Peninsula, Palos Verdes Estates, is independent and is not part of the drone program.
The total cost of the four drones is $76,000, with each city paying their portion based on the city’s population. Rancho Palos Verdes will be paying $44,080, Lomita will pay $21,280, Rolling Hills Estates will pay $9,120 and Rolling Hills will pay $1,520, according to a Rancho Palos Verdes city staff report.
Jennifer Schmid, public safety manager for Rancho Palos Verdes, said at the Aug. 18 council meeting that the program includes “one long-range drone, two daily response drones, and one interior drone.”
“Each is intended to support different operational needs, including larger incidents, calls for service, and high-risk indoor operations,” Schmid said. “The equipment includes capabilities such as thermal imaging, HD video and Zoom, floodlights, a loudspeaker and (light detection and ranging) mapping.”
The drones, Schmid said, are not used for “routine active patrol or general monitoring,” but will be available for “crime scene and traffic collision documentation, tactical operations and assessments, search and rescue, real-time incident and crime scene awareness, surveillance during exigent circumstances, and other operations authorized under LASD’s policy.”
Councilmembers said at the Aug. 18 meeting that potential law enforcement opportunities outweigh potential civil liberty issues including potential invasion of privacy.
If there is “misuse,” RPV Mayor Paul Seo said, “we can get rid of them.”
“Let’s say we have bad actors, God forbid that happens and we have incidents where drones are being used to harass people, or intimidate folks, or look into places they’re not supposed to be. We can get rid of them as a City Council,” Seo said.
Seo added, “Staff will come tell us, and then we’ll be will be apprised of the situation. If we need to cross that bridge, we can cross it.”
RPV Councilmember George Lewis said he was aware of privacy concerns, but “there was a really important line in this presentation that you gave that the use of the drone creates no additional authority whatsoever.”
“The use of the drone must comport with existing legal authority with respect to surveillance and an investigation,” Lewis said. “So, yeah, mistakes can happen. I mean, we’re all human, but I think the mistakes are massively outnumbered by the successes in law enforcement using these kind of tools.”
Schmid said at the meeting, “when they are deployed for calls for service, operators must take reasonable precaution to avoid capturing areas where there is reasonable expectation of privacy.”
“The policy recognizes that emergency circumstances may require operational flexibility when necessary to protect life, preserve property, or support public safety. Importantly, the UAS program does not expand law enforcement authority,” Schmid said.
Seo said the drones will be a benefit on many levels.
“Given our emergencies that we have on the hill and Peninsula, given our terrain and access to that terrain, fast, efficient eyes on an issue I think is very important,” Seo said. “I think that’s something that we definitely need to have, especially given our landslide issues and the high fire zones.”
Schmid said the Lomita Sheriff’s Station “would have sole responsibility for operation and management of the program” and must operate “within the existing legal framework governing LASD operations.”
Seo said “we’re not going to have some person that’s willy nilly just flying these drones to people’s houses.”