![]() Others are less so: a “person sleeping on the sidewalk,” a “water leak,” a report of someone “drunk in public.” Some are downright weird: Drones were sent out more than once to situations described as “fake COVID testing.” Many of the flights involve clearly dangerous scenarios: weapon threats, assaults, fires. The data offers a poignant snapshot of the human experience, captured through the filters of 911 calls and the blinking red lens of a police drone’s camera. According to the police force, as of March, the drones have flown more than 5,400 missions and played a role in more than 650 arrests.īut what, exactly, are those drones looking at during all these flights? In a laudable act of transparency, the Chula Vista Police Department posts detailed records online of where their drones fly-and why. (The department has denied public access to the footage, claiming an exception under the California Public Records Act, but an April lawsuit filed by a San Diego newspaper is challenging this claim). The footage is stored in Chula Vista’s data repository, where detectives and police can access it, as well as the district attorney’s office. All along the way, it records video through a zoom camera lens, streaming footage back to HQ and to responding officers’ mobile devices. The answer is usually yes, in which case the drone launches from the department HQ and flies to the scene of the incident at an altitude of about 300 to 400 feet. Now, when a call comes in to 911, the dispatcher decides whether to send a drone. ![]() ![]() By August 2019, the CVPD was permitted to use drones over 33 percent of the city’s area, and in March 2021, the FAA approved an expansion of the CVPD’s range to cover the entirety of the city. That waiver permitted the department to create its “Drone as First Responder” program, which allows police to fly over the entire city using small multirotor drones that are launched and piloted largely from central headquarters. But in 2018, the Chula Vista Police Department procured a special waiver connected to the Trump-era UAS, or Unmanned Aerial Systems, Integration Pilot Program run by the FAA, which aimed to evaluate how drones can become more involved in American life. Most everywhere else in the U.S., drone pilots must secure hard-to-get waivers to fly beyond visual line of sight or over people. Drones were sent out more than once to situations described as “fake COVID testing.”
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