“[Drones] throughout the day are incredibly important to our teams,” said Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, at a press conference after the arrest. “There were numerous ones out there throughout the day.”
For the Brooklyn Park Police Department, where a state legislator and her husband were killed in its jurisdiction, the manhunt wasn't just a success, it was a lesson.
The experience highlighted the limitations of their current drone program, prompting them to consider the next evolution in the technology: drones as first responders (DFR).
WHAT IS DRONE AS FIRST RESPONDER?
DFR is a public safety model where a remotely operated drone is dispatched to a 911 call location, often arriving before police officers or other emergency personnel.
“We’re in the not quite infancy, not quite toddler stage with the drones,” she told Government Technology in an interview. “It’s still new technology, and we’re still getting used to what the capabilities are and what we can do with it.”
The officers take the drones with them to calls where they can look inside or outside a residence without even leaving their squad cars. The small interior drones have even been used to open an ajar door and look inside.
One clear takeaway: It’s giving the force more eyes on what they’re walking into so they can plan accordingly.
“I remember on calls going in and searching for people and finding people in rooms, and you had that startle moment. You're not getting that with the drone,” she said. “There isn't that life-or-death, ‘Oh my gosh, what's going to happen next?’ Because you're safe on the other side of a wall or are in your squad car.”
HOW DRONES HELPED DURING THE MANHUNT
The department used both interior and exterior drones after officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect at the Brooklyn Park home of state Rep. Melissa Hortman.
Inside the home, the drone camera revealed Rep. Hortman had been killed. That knowledge turned a rescue mission into a recovery.
Gelle said the experience also highlighted the current drone program’s limitations.
WHAT WAS MISSING IN THE RESPONSE
“You have to get there, you have to take the drone out,” said Gelle. “It can take three to five minutes to get it set up. So that's three to five minutes more that someone can get away.”
Officer Ryan Smith, lead trainer of Brooklyn Park’s drone program, noted that battery limits are something they continuously work to mitigate.
“There’s probably about 10 to 15 minutes you're going to get out of a battery before you need to swap it out,” said Smith, explaining that the battery life of the smaller interior drones is more limited than the larger exterior devices which also rarely allow enough battery life for officers to thoroughly investigate in some cases.
Now the department is considering the next step, like a drones-as-first-responders program.
Gelle feels that setup could have made a big difference in June, when officers initially weren’t sure where the suspect had fled to during the tense first moments of the call.
“If we had that program in place right now, we would have had somebody here at the office when that call came out, they would have launched the drone immediately and within seconds would have been over here and potentially could have caught him leaving,” she said.
DFR PROGRAMS ARE LAUNCHING NATIONWIDE
Just 20 minutes from Brooklyn Park, the city of Minnetonka recently launched the state's first DFR program.
“I think it's exciting to be the first in the area,” said Police Chief Scott Boerboom in a video the city posted on social media about the new program. “I know it's worked well in other parts of the country, and I'm just really excited that we are the first and our officers get to learn and provide some new technology that other departments are going to then look at us to see how we are doing it.”
DRONE RESPONSE VS. PRIVACY CONCERNS
But as these programs expand, they're flying into the turbulence of public concern. Gelle explained that during a shots-fired call that resulted in a SWAT response, she temporarily landed an exterior drone in another resident’s yard.
“Some guy got upset that there was this big drone in his yard and went up to it and kicked it,” she said. “I understand you don’t want it in your yard, but your entire block is shut down with police activity, here, give us a little bit of grace.”
That example highlights the growing tension between law enforcement's eye in the sky and public privacy.
