RENTON, Wash. — More than 1,400 police departments across the country are already using drones in some way, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In Renton, the police department is tapping into drone technology.
Renton police officer Matthew Nugent said the drones allow the department to collect evidence of the scene and revisit it often. Renton police have more than 30 drones and two dozen FAA-licensed drone pilots, according to Nugent.
For police, having an eye on the sky has changed things.
“Drones have made collision reconstruction far more effective and efficient,” Nugent said.
Nugent said the department is deploying drone technology into different divisions "from patrol level to detectives to traffic investigations."
Last week, during a drone demonstration using a mock crash scene, officers showed how it works. The drone flies an automated path capturing data points along the way.
"Datapoints allow us to take measurements and our detectives can calculate speed,” Nugent said.
Back in the office, detectives have the photos the drone took and the 3D mapping of the scene at their fingertips.
"It is just a force multiplier in that it allows us to do so much more with less resources," said Kevin Lane, traffic detective.
Police said the evidence collection process that used to take hours can now take minutes.
"We can go to the courtroom, and we can display an entire model of a collision scene which has a great impact for a panel of jury members who are trying to understand what happened before, during, and after this collision occurred,” Nugent said.
The use of police drones does raise privacy concerns for the ACLU, which is calling for strict limits.
Tee Sannon, ACLU-WA technology policy program director, outlined concerns over police expanding drone technology.
“Using drones to record and reconstruct traffic accidents may aid collision investigations, but also raises serious concerns about the impact of surveillance in our communities," Sannon said. "Drones can carry multiple surveillance tools like microphones, thermal cameras, and facial recognition systems over both public spaces and private land while gathering information, purposefully or while in transit to an investigation site. Monitoring traffic through aerial surveillance could have a chilling impact on communities by making people feel continuously watched by police drones overhead, potentially chilling free speech and impinging on their free association rights.
Drone use by law enforcement must be carefully regulated to minimize threats to privacy, including by limiting the use, sharing, and retention of any collected data."
The Renton Police Department (RPD) said they have a well-structured drone policy.
“We certainly have been very transparent with the public about what we are doing with drones,” Nugent said. "We want to make sure that when we are using a drone it is for a purpose. We are not out proactively flying a drone to try and find something. We are simply not doing that.”
Right now, the RPD is considering the possibilities for their fleet's future.
"Drone as first responder, what is referred to as DFR, is going to be a way to have response times lowered by using drone technologies,” Nugent said. "Imagine a situation where someone calls 911. We are now waiting for officers to respond. We generally don't have any video feed or any sort of live-time updates."
A drone could soon change that, police said.
"If it is an active scene and there is general danger, a drone can be there recording the scene, capturing that sort of evidence before officers even arrive,” Nugent said. "We are not actively doing that right now, but it is on the horizon."