by The Police Department of OceansideThe Drone as First Responder pilot program, which aims to deploy a drone from a city rooftop to situations to deliver footage and information to authorities prior to their arrival, was launched Monday.
The Oceanside City Council approved the 13-month pilot program with the goal of enhancing police safety and alertness when responding to calls, as well as speeding up response times. The drone will mostly fly in the downtown region of the city and provide its video footage to the city’s Real-Time Crime Center.
A $264,816 state grant from the 2024 Citizens Options for Public Safety program is supporting Drone as First Responder. The drones, software, and personnel will all be covered by that funding.
According to an OPD statement, the program will be manned by qualified and thoroughly trained drone pilots who are ready to launch the aircraft in accordance with departmental procedures and FAA regulations. In order to guarantee safe operations in the airspace, a specialized visual observer will also help during each trip.
The police claims that the drones can reduce response times by arriving at the scene of a call in less than a minute. Strict guidelines govern when drones are released, how the video can be used, and how it is stored, according to the OPD statement.
The public can examine flight information and activity on a city-run transparency portal at https://dashboard.dronesense.com/oceansidepdca.
In San Diego County, the use of drones by law enforcement has become a contentious issue. A few days ago, the California Supreme Court denied a request by the city of Chula Vista to have another court’s decision in an ongoing lawsuit regarding the public release of drone footage taken by its police department reviewed.
The city must reveal drone footage taken during law enforcement operations, the court decided.
The case started in 2021 when Arturo Casta Ares, the publisher of La Prensa San Diego, filed a complaint under the California Public Records Act requesting copies of a month’s worth of CVPD drone recordings. According to Casta Ares, the goal of his case was to determine whether the police department’s use of drones was legal.
The city turned down the request, claiming that some of the films were related to ongoing investigations and that others would infringe on the privacy rights of those who were filmed.
In the years that followed, the matter alternated between lower and appellate courts.
The Chula Vista City Council decided late last month to request a review of Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor’s decision by the California Supreme Court.
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According to the city’s statement justifying its actions, the city may occasionally release drone footage of incidents to demonstrate to the community the effectiveness of the program, but its main objective is to protect residents’ privacy when appropriate and secure clear guidance regarding when disclosure of drone footage is permitted by California law.
Taylor supported the city’s argument in his initial ruling in the case in 2023 that the video could not be made public because it was investigatory material and therefore qualified for an exemption that permits it to be kept secret.
After Casta Ares filed an appeal, the 4th District Court of Appeal decided that, although a large portion of the drone footage might be exempt, it was wrong to conclude that all of the video material was connected to any investigations.
This article was provided to by City News Service.
