The Herald reported last May that state police were soliciting proposals for a $150,000 unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, but officials made a decision some time in “late winter” this year to scrap it — for now — after getting one bidder and re-evaluating its budget, a spokesman said.
“There isn’t a plan that we’re ready to pull a trigger on,” spokesman David Procopio said. “It’s just a question of prioritizing spending. We think it’s a great idea and it would be an important tool for us. But in a review of what the most urgent priorities are, we haven’t gotten to the UAV yet.”
State police wanted a drone that could record and stream high-definition video, and track and identify the GPS location of any object in its view, according to a bid request obtained by the Herald. Officials also wanted it to be equipped with an infrared camera, as well as a standard camera with at least a 30-times zoom.
At that time, state police said they hoped to use it for search-and-rescue missions, as well as reconstructing car crashes. Procopio said police also viewed a drone as an alternative to its Air Wing in bad weather conditions.
Police have said that the department did not plan to use it for surveillance.
“There’s still support for (having a drone) within the department,” he said.
Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty project at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the move by state police “seems like a can that’s been kicked down the road.” The group has pushed a bill that would require police to obtain a warrant to use a drone, except in cases of emergency.
“People should not assume that state police or federal agents acting on behalf of the state police will not use a drone or a surveillance plane to monitor their behavior from the sky,” she said.
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