D.C. police will start using drones to respond alongside officers to some calls, including barricade situations and large-scale public gatherings, bolstering a broader government effort that has increased video surveillance of the District.
Police unveiled the program Monday alongside rules defining approved uses for the fleet, a group of five Parrot Anafi drones that cost about $15,000 each. Those tasks include searching for missing people, responding to active barricade situations, serving high-risk warrants, investigating traffic crashes, monitoring crowds during large public events and locating people who police believe to be armed suspects, the guidelines state.
The drones add to a growing collection of cameras and footage at D.C. police disposal that are all feeding into what District officials dubbed a “real-time crime center” — a live video monitoring command center the department opened this year. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Monday touted the center’s impact, saying it helped police quickly arrest two men in connection with a shooting that injured a police captain in May. She said the new technology would build on that progress.
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“The bottom line is that [drones] will help the community and our officers as we are working to make violent crime go down in the District,” Bowser said. “They’ll help us solve more crimes and allow us to use our finite resources more efficiently.”
Officials said the drones and other technological advancements can increase the police department’s reach even as the size of D.C.’s sworn force remains at a half-century low — a hope that gives pause to some local civil liberties advocates who say they are not swayed by officials’ pledges to restrict use of footage.
“We’re not saying that law enforcement should not use technology; we just [believe] that technology should be regulated and have a transparent process,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C.
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Hopkins said she wants the city to require government agencies to seek D.C. Council approval and undergo public hearings before adopting surveillance technologies. Hopkins also said the council should codify limits and accountability measures for the technology into law and delineate more clearly when police can and cannot record.
In launching its drone program, D.C. joins about 1,500 police departments across the country that are using drone technology to assist with investigating and responding to crime, officials said Monday. Some departments, including in neighboring Montgomery County, use “drone as first responder” programs that send drones to the scene of 911 calls first to determine whether it is necessary to send officers there.
Police officials said D.C. would not use drones as the first responders to a scene, though they were exploring the possibility of doing so in the future.
D.C. officials said that they will limit the circ*mstances under which drones can respond and that drones will only operate within the line of sight of a police officer. They will not utilize artificial intelligence or facial recognition technology, and they will not be used for “general surveillance purposes,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith told reporters Monday.
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“We know that the use of new technology can give rise to concerns about privacy, and I want to assure you that we are also focused on protecting the community’s privacy,” Smith said.
The drones will be capable of recording, Smith said, but they will record only in cases where police are called to investigate a potential crime, or when lawful First Amendment demonstrations turn into “riots.”
“We monitor and manage crowds all the time,” Smith said, “but when that peaceful protest turns into an element of a crime, we can now utilize the drone to be able to ‘eyes in the sky’ zero down on what is happening in that space.”
Hopkins, with the ACLU, said she worries the use of police drones may have a “chilling effect” on protests, including demonstrations “around Gaza and Palestine, and what we can anticipate coming up as we head into this election.”
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Drone footage will be treated like other video evidence recorded in the course of investigations, police said. The department may release footage, and the public can request drone footage through traditional public records requests. D.C. police have also published regulations and frequently asked questions about the drone program on their website. But Hopkins said regulating the use of drones should not fall solely on the police department.
“All of this should not just be in [the D.C. police] General Orders, which can be changed without public comment, without public input, without public accountability measures,” Hopkins said.
Police officials also announced Monday that the department had acquired a Falcon 1 police helicopter, an investment of roughly $6 million for the city to replace an older model the department had been using since 2001. The new helicopter is equipped with more advanced camera and mapping technology, officials said.
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The Bowser administration is focused on increasing the number of cameras police can access across the city, adding 200 CCTV cameras and 47 license plate readers by the end of the year. Residential streets across D.C. are also increasingly lined with Ring doorbell cameras, and lawmakers recently upped the amount of money the city will reimburse people who purchase such surveillance cameras for their homes and business.
On Monday, Bowser thanked the police department for contributing to significant drops in crime this year after the city saw the most homicides in more than two decades in 2023. Homicides are down 22 percent compared with this time last year, and overall crime is down 27 percent, department data shows.
