Seattle PD planning expansive new drone program

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) plans “to acquire and use Unmanned Aerial Systems for specialty teams and patrol operations” according to documents obtained by HardPressed.

SPD’s Mirs Vonaschen-Cook submitted an initial technology “privacy assessment” request to Seattle’s Information Technology Department (ITD) in July 2023. Months later in April 2024, the ITD determined the technology must proceed to a surveillance impact report (SIR) process prior to launching a new buzzing big brother. 

Seattle city council may then decide to approve or reject SPD’s use of drones by a vote, however the program may not make it far with intense public pushback. 

In 2013, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn shut down a proposed SPD drone program before it was launched. At the time, McGinn told the Seattle Times that police needed to focus on “community building” instead.

According to reporting by the Seattle Times, McGinn’s termination of SPD’s drone program in 2013 left one Seattle city council member, Bruce Harrell, disgruntled. 

Now, Harrell is Seattle’s mayor, in control of the ITD which may push the drone SIR process forward in the public domain. Harrell's office has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Drone as a First Responder

Within an initial privacy assessment obtained by HardPressed, the SPD has indicated it wants to use drones for patrol units, arson and bomb squad, SWAT, harbor patrol, traffic collision investigation squad, CSI and to utilize drones as a first responder. 

The SPD wrote that “certain officers scattered throughout the various precincts and watches would be issues [sic] and trained on drone operation.” The arson and bomb squad is proposed to use drones “to render safe known explosive/dangerous devices by placing small charges on devices and detonating in place.” SWAT is proposed to use drones to “communicate with barricaded subjects.”

SPD brass previously determined that the department’s harbor patrol unit could be completely turned over to civilian responders. Now, the department is proposing officers with guns deploy drones to rescue swimmers in distress.

“With a view from above, including thermal/FLIR view capability, harbor officers would be able to respond directly to those in distress on the water and more efficiently effect rescue,” wrote SPD. 

In other use cases, the SPD proposes to use drones for traffic collision and crime scene investigations, for site photogrammetry and to create “photos/videos/diagrams of sizeable crime scenes, which supports prosecutors in explaining how a suspect committed a crime.”

The SPD also proposes to use drones as first responders (DFR), “dispatching drones either automated or manually. Drones would arrive over a scene in advance of responding officers and provide real-time information and video to units prior to their arrival.”

New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, currently under federal indictment for allegations of bribery and illegally taking millions of dollars from taxpayers for his personal political campaign, announced yesterday the expanded use of NYPD's DFR program, before highlighting Donald Trump's use of robotic surveillance.

Adams previously visited Israel, where he and NYPD officials learned about Israeli drone technologies that are currently being used to surveil and kill Palestinian children daily amidst an ongoing well-documented genocide.

A WIRED investigation drilled into Chula Vista’s DFR program which has launched over 20,000 flights. After interviewing numerous people, WIRED found that “residents who encounter the technology day-to-day report feeling constantly watched. Some say they are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes. One resident says that he was so worried that the drones were harassing him that he went to the emergency room for severe depression and exhaustion.”

The SPD, so far, has moved out of the public eye to advance the use of drones, developing the framework for a massive new program that will certainly meet robust public opposition. 

In one case in 2020, an SPD officer used his own personal drone to photograph a house as part of an official police investigation. The OPA found his use of the drone was illegal and provided the officer with a training referral.

Previous reporting in Real Change and HardPressed has shown on numerous occasions, SPD officials have not been truthful to the public and elected officials regarding the surveillance capabilities the department uses and plans to deploy through the SIR process. 

In an email to HardPressed, SPD Public Affairs wrote that "it is unknown at this time when the Seattle Police Department will re-instate the Surveillance Impact Review process for drones."

33 other SPD technology privacy assessments have been completed so far in 2024, including the use of Cellebrite Guardian, robots, and various apps and technologies used by the U.S. military including iTak and C3 artificial intelligence products. The department is also planning to use a software system developed by the FBI, CASTViz, to visualize historical cell-phone geolocation data in addition to ForceMetrics artificial intelligence products.

The full privacy assessment for each technology, obtained from Seattle's ITD is provided below:

Note: This story may be updated if comment is provided.