SDPD, SDFD can continue to use drones after City Council approval
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved the continued use of its UAS program or Unmanned Aircraft System — drones used by the San Diego Police Department and San Diego Fire-Rescue.
The program has been implemented since 2018, but following privacy concerns in 2022 the city adopted an ordinance to make sure they’re used with full public transparency.
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“One of the recommendations that the Privacy Advisory Board made, Unmanned Aircraft Systems must only be used where there is a reasonable suspicion of Part 1 FBI Index Crimes,” said San Diego City Councilmember, Marni Von Wilpert.
The Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology Ordinance (TRUST) requires SDPD and SDFD to go through a new approval process every year.
It requires that some 300 technologies that fall under the umbrella of “surveillance” are made public and can be evaluated with a Privacy Advisory Board.
Von Wilpert gives examples of discourse between the police department and the advisory board. In this case, why the department rejected a particular recommendation.
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“Part 1 FBI Index Crimes are for specifically the following crimes, homicide, forcible rape, robbery, assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, crimes that all of us would consider violent, and things we need to intervene in. But if you go to the 2nd paragraph… because other crimes classified as misdemeanors or felonies not listed on the Part 1 FBI Index could still be life-threatening.”
As an example — an active shooter situation on a school campus.
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“Imagine if someone walked into UCSD or SDSU with a rifle,” explained Von Wilpert. “Those are huge campuses the police cannot cover on foot. We want to be able to fly drones in the air to see where that person is see, what they are doing. If we took the Privacy Advisory Board’s recommendation to only fly drones in those severely limited crimes, the police could not use a drone in the event of a shooting.”
The board also noted that not only are drones aiding police and firefighters, they also work as a de-escalation tool.
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