Asheville police, fire departments launch 'cutting edge' drone unit
ASHEVILLE - The city's police and fire departments launched a joint Drone Unit, which will use aerial technology to respond to certain emergency situations, as announced on APD’s Instagram June 12.
“Our team is now equipped with cutting-edge aerial technology to enhance public safety and strengthen our community outreach efforts,” APD stated in an Instagram post. “We can swiftly respond to emergency situations, efficiently survey large areas, and provide real-time support during critical incidents.”
The departments have initiated a DFR, or Drone First Responder, program that launches from the city's Municipal Building, at 100 Court Plaza, and will run two days a week for four to six hours. This location was chosen due to data that shows 62% of calls for service in the city of Asheville not initiated by an officer happen in a 3-mile radius of the building, police Capt. Brandon Moore said in an Instagram video posted by APD June 12.
"That helps us in the instance of getting to a scene quicker and being able to, at times, relocate resources that don't need to go to this call and/or send additional units," Moore said in the video. "So the drone has been extremely proficient at getting overhead, some instances in less than 30 seconds, and providing live feedback."
There are two drones within the unit, one used by each department, AFD spokesperson Kelley Klope told the Citizen-Times June 15. APD’s drone will aid in search and rescue operations, traffic management and crime scene investigations, according to APD’s post. The fire department, which started a drone program in October, uses its drone mainly for search and rescue, body recovery and in the aftermath of a fire to determine burn patterns, Klope said.
“You can’t get the camera we have on the drone commercially,” Wesley Rodgers, AFD division chief and drone pilot, told the Citizen-Times June 15. Both Rodgers and Klope mentioned how the drone’s features, namely a thermal camera and ability to relay real-time messages, can help pinpoint missing people and fires more quickly.
Police bodycam purchase: A year after this WNC man's in-custody death, a town makes its biggest purchase for police
“For instance, the other day we saw some smoke in the area and brought the drone over,” Klope said. “They were probably 400 feet up in the air and the way they could zoom in, you could tell it was a small recreational fire, we saw a goat on the ground, we saw the person who had set the fire.”
In response to Citizen Times inquiries including how the drones would be used and whether they would be allowed to fly over private property, APD Capt. Joe Silberman provided no response to those specific questions but sent a link to a story from a South Carolina TV station.
Officers must undergo a four-day training class and pass a Federal Aviation Administration test to receive a drone pilot license. AFD requires an additional four hours of flight time on the department’s smaller, trainer drone.
This joint drone unit comes five months after City Council approved an agreement in January between City Manager Debra Campbell’s office and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, allowing police to access about 1,800 cameras throughout the city equipped with Fusus, a real-time surveillance software that has facial and pattern recognition capability. The Sheriff’s Office previously told the Citizen-Times that it is not using the advance features that the software is capable of.
APD camera network: Buncombe County Sheriff has 1,800-camera network; Asheville PD now gets to use it
Rodgers said he has not encountered any concerns regarding the ethics of using drones to assist the fire department, but he also acknowledged that because the program is so new, that could change.
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at ACLU's national office, said the American Civil Liberties Union has no problem with the use of drones by law enforcement in specific emergency situations, but they do have serious concerns about how drone use may develop in the future.
“Our big concern is that they do not evolve into routine, suspicion-less, mass surveillance, and there is some reason to think that may happen over time," Stanley told the Citizen-Times June 16. "A number of police departments have expressed interest in using drones for patrol.”
A growing number of North Carolina law enforcement agencies have started drone programs since the elimination of the state pre-approval process in December 2015, which used to require pre-approval from the state’s chief information officer before a local jurisdiction could use drones, according to Carolina Public Press.
North Carolina law, particularly G.S. 15A-300.1, places limits on law enforcement use of drones for surveillance purposes. Drone surveillance, unless the area is in an officer’s plain view, is prohibited without a warrant or exigent emergency circumstances. Additionally, any person who is the subject of unwarranted surveillance, or whose photograph is taken by a drone and released in a way that violates the statute, can recover $5,000 for every photo or video disseminated.
“We think it's very important that police departments be extremely transparent with this technology," Stanely said. "They should be answering the community’s questions about exactly what technology they have, what kinds of sensors its carrying, and what policies they’ve established for when they will and will not use them. Like, what happens to all the video they collect that’s not evidence of any crime but might be privacy invasive?”
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.