The crux of the debate has centered around the drone’s potential to infringe on civil liberties, specifically related to the city’s homeless population.
District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and Councilors At-Large Thu Nguyen and Khrystian King were the three councilors that voted against supporting the purchase of the technology.
District 1 Councilor Sean Rose, who voted in favor of the item said he couldn’t forgive himself if he voted against a resource that had the ability to save someone’s life. He also said the process of acquiring the drone has been valuable and a good exercise.
Among his reasons for voting against the item, King said he requested data weeks ago related to how often the police department has borrowed drones from other communities and how long it takes for the drones to arrive on the scene.
In the discussions about the drone, the police department has noted that the time it takes for drones from other communities to arrive on scene hampers their response time.
Acting City Manager Eric Batista told King the council has not been provided with that data.
King said he did believe concessions on the drone policy were made in good faith, city and police officials met with a member of the ACLU and made seven changes to the policy afterwards, but said the overall process to obtain the drown has been flawed.
Nguyen brought up concerns about if their image would be collected by the drone if the drone was being used for crowd control during events like protests.
Deputy Police Chief Paul Saucier said the drone will not record unless the department has secured a search warrant for a specific criminal investigation.
While the changes to the policy did include defining the exigent circumstances in which the drone would be used as circumstances that are of such urgency as to justify a warrantless entry, search or seizure by police when a warrant would usually be required, Nguyen asked for a more clear definition.
Saucier described them as an immediate emergency, such as an active shooter situation, a fire or a truck with hazardous materials overturning.
Nguyen said the city council’s process for obtaining the drone has left a bitter taste in their mouth.
Councilors speaking in favor of the drone included Councilors At-large Donna Colorio and Kathleen Toomey.
Colorio described the drone as technology that keeps us safe and Toomey said its use in event monitoring, active shooting situations, mapping crime scenes and search and rescue will improve safety for all citizens.
In addition to voting against the technology, Haxhiaj put forward a motion to cap the purchase of any additional drones, citing “all the concerns that people have expressed.” Her motion failed with only King and Nguyen voting with her for the cap.
The timeline for the use of the drone by the department is going to be months, according to Police Chief Steven Sargent.
Sargent said the drone will likely be purchased in the first quarter of FY23, which starts on Oct. 1, but most likely the department will not have training completed on the device for up to six months.
Batista told the council one of the biggest components of the drone purchase is accountability and that reporting on the drone’s usage will be made available to him on a quarterly basis.
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