Phoenix Police To Get Drones, Many Worried About Citizen Privacy

PHOENIX, AZ — The city of Phoenix sped up plans for a Police Department drone program after the department had to borrow a drone from Glendale during last week's shooting that left two people dead and nine officers injured.

The Phoenix City Council voted 6-3 Wednesday to approve the purchase of the drones for around $516,000, and to allow the department to implement a drone program. Its estimated that the program will be up and running within the next 3-6 months.

Council members voting against the measure were Betty Guardado, Sal DiCiccio and Carlos Garcia.

All those who voted against the proposal expressed concerns about citizen privacy, especially since most council members had not seen a draft of the Police Department's drone use policy before they voted to approve the drones' purchase.

DiCiccio said the drone purchase was being rushed in a knee-jerk reaction to last week's shooting and added that he wouldn't vote for something when he had not seen the policy for it.

“For those who believe in civil liberties, this is a big step,” Dicicio said.

Others on the council favored the measure as a way to support Phoenix police in their work and to keep them safe.

"Enough is enough," Council Member O'Brien said in a news release. "We need to protect our citizens, and we need to support the men and women in blue by providing them the tools necessary to keep us all safe."

The city's Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee in January approved the first phase of a drone program for the Phoenix Fire Department, but that program wouldn't include the police department until its third phase. After last week's shooting, council members Ann O'Brien, Debra Stark, and Jim Waring, along with Mayor Kate Gallego, rushed to get a drone program for the Police Department on Wednesday's City Council Meeting agenda so that the police could begin using drones sooner than originally planned.

Phoenix Police Executive Assistant Chief Michael Kurtenbach told the council Wednesday that drones have the potential to save lives by allowing police to get information from a crime scene without having to physically enter it themselves. This is especially helpful in cases like last Friday's shooting, when a suspected shooter was barricaded inside a home with other people, including a baby and an injured woman. Phoenix Police are looking to buy drones that they could use to communicate with those suspected of crimes to try to deescalate tense situations.

“It improves the safety of everyone involved,” Kurtenbach said.

Phoenix police plan to use the drones, "during high-risk tactical incidents to conduct highly detailed and complex investigations and support major planned/unplanned events," the council members wrote in their proposal.

The police department's tactical support unit plans to use the drones to do things like collecting information and locating suspected criminals from the air, a much safer option for officers than collecting that information on foot.

Other police units would use the drones for photography and videography that would help with crime scene mapping. Police expect that this would cut down crime scene mapping time significantly.

The department's Homeland Defense Bureau would also use the drones to survey major events to help department leaders make decisions about where to deploy officers.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, six people spoke in favor of moving up the timeline for Phoenix police to start its drone program and two people spoke against it.

Lt. Ben Leuschner, president of the Phoenix Police Sergeant's and Lieutenant's Association, said that one could argue that any technology that police use could be used nefariously.

"The solution to these concerns is not to ban the technology, but to ensure it's used in line with the law and with due process rights," he said.

Katie Gibson McClean pointed out that Arizona does not require police to obtain a warrant before using a drone for police work.

“Just because you can infringe on someone’s right to privacy, it doesn’t mean you should,” she said.

Kurtenbach said that he would never throw out Phoenicians' rights to protection against unreasonable search and seizure and added that he "holds privacy and civil liberties dear."

While several council members had questions and concerns about the proposed policy, police representatives and city staff promised that the drone purchase would take time and that they could use that time to vet the policy and give feedback.

The Police Department's drone program was approved with the stipulations that the policy for drone usage go to the City Council's Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee for review and that community meetings be held to get public input on the drone use policy.

The council also directed city staff to incorporate council and community feedback into the drone policy, to update the council on the draft policy prior to its implementation, and to have a lawyer with an expertise in privacy meet with the council members about their civil liberty concerns, prior to the Police Department's using the drones.