Brookfield Police Department plans to purchase drones
“The drones can all do photography at pretty high levels so we get that — we never had that before — and this [software] can provide us measurable 3D drawings.” Brookfield Police Captain Matthew Donadio
BROOKFIELD — A police proposal to fund the purchase of drones capable of performing an array of surveillance and visual search-related functions is moving forward after members of the Board of Finance signaled their support for the plan.
Brookfield Police Captain Matthew Donadio said the idea began to form about a year and a half ago when the department realized the potential to use the technology for car accident reconstructions.
A memo outlining the plan shows the department asking for an initial $15,700 to fund the purchase of two drones equipped with high resolution thermal and optical cameras to be used in cases including disaster relief and search and rescue operations, accident reconstructions, and “officer safety” roles. It also requests money for mapping software to improve accident reconstruction work.
“The drones can all do photography at pretty high levels so we get that — we never had that before — and this [software] can provide us measurable 3D drawings,” Donadio said.
Drones fill policing void over Connecticut skies
No longer requiring helicopters or a small-fixed wing aircraft, the set of drone-delivered capabilities sought by the department matches a pattern of increasingly regular “police business” seen with the rise in the technology’s application by municipal agencies in the state and across the country.
Danbury Police Department Detective Lt. Mark Williams explained how drones borrowed from the city's fire department come in handy to cover large areas in a search for missing people, and they have used the aerial cameras at some crime scenes in situations where an assault occurred or at an outdoor crime scene to get an overview of a neighborhood.
“If you have a SWAT team setting up a perimeter on a particular location, the use of a drone would give them information, real time, pictures or video of the location that they are securing or possibly entering,” Williams said.
In the state capital, Hartford Police Department Intelligence Officer Chris Mastroianni said the city's police department first used its drones over the finish line at the Hartford Marathon last October. Since then, he reported the drones have been an important asset for aerial support in response to an array of calls, including missing person reports and burglary alarms at high rise buildings.
“We have assisted in locating homeless encampments out in the woods so the city can put together plans, offer social services, and then clean out the encampments; and we assist with fire and their operations,” Mastroianni said.
When it comes to how local agencies establish an independent drone program, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration provides two options:
They can license officers under a self-study and testing certification course to obtain licenses to operate the unmanned aerial units for commercial use – the approval coming with restrictions barring operators from flying at night or not keeping their drones within visual sight.
Or, departments can apply for a Certificate of Authorization from the federal aviation regulator — the distinction meaning the department holds an officially recognized aviation unit. Once the FAA certificate is in place, a department can establish and run its own internal training program for personnel and set baseline requirements for officers.
Through the use of its Unmanned Aerial System program, Hartford police plan to deploy their drones this summer to help the department handle roaming groups of all terrain vehicle operators known to create headaches in the city, Mastroianni said.
“Drones are useful to try to avoid having cops chase them around in a car,” he said. “When you can find out where they are parked and gathered, we can
move in and do some enforcement.”
Privacy concerns
No matter the type of license, FAA rules require all unmanned aerial devices to fly no higher than 400 feet and avoid restricted airspace designated around airports and other sensitive locations.
The lower flight altitude for drones has at times led some advocacy groups to question the impact of police drone surveillance in some areas of privacy and unwarranted search and seizure law.
But in states like Connecticut without specific statues in place to regulate authorization for drone use by law enforcement or other government agencies, the use of the unmanned aerial surveillance follows the normally allowed course of police work as provided under the law and through department policies.
Mastroianni said Hartford Police Department wrote a specific policy for the drone program and noted the collection of any video or photograph evidence recordings follow the state's regular record retention laws.
“It involves the same rules as a cop,” Mastroianni said. “If a cop can go back there without a search warrant then your drone could see it; if a cop would need a search warrant to enter that premises then your drone would need a search warrant to look.”
Williams said in open space and within a certain distance of real property, Danbury officers would have no restrictions utilizing the drone in investigations.
“If you are hovering at 10 feet
in someone's back yard,” he added. “I think that is a different story without some type of warrant.”
Drones over Danbury
As the Danbury fire department's coordinator for the nearly four year old drone program, James Gagliardo said the city's police enlist the services of department drones about seven times each year. Usually, they're used for missing person reports or are limited to incidents where they are operating “above an incident that we have permission to be in that area,” he said.
For example, the drone could be used to “over watch” a canine searching for someone, he said.
Gagliardo, who is also the Danbury Fire Department communications coordinator, underscored the importance and evolving use of the city's unmanned aircraft program, particularly in fighting large-event fires, responding to natural disasters, and assisting in missing person searches.
“For doing searches for people, and I will be honest that I have yet to find somebody with the drone, but what I can tell you I have cleared acres and acres and acres of land where we didn't have to put boots on the ground,” he added.
Through an anonymous gift in 2018, Danbury Fire Department received its first drone — a $20,000 device carrying a thermal heat sensing-camera that is one of two primary units used by the city's first responders today in a variety of capacities.
Costing about $6,000, one is more compact, easier to deploy, carries a standard camera and a
thermal imaging camera, and comes with a loudspeaker and a floodlight. The other is a more expensive, “enterprise” unit that can carry multiple cameras — a function the fire department uses to hold a thermal camera, a zoom camera, and a standard camera when they respond to calls, according to Gagliardo.
Traditional air support for missing person searches can cost up to $6,000 an hour to operate and depends on aircraft availability, he said. Drone propellers may need to be replaced if they become damaged, but short of crashing the unit into a tree, “there is not much to maintenance besides keeping the batteries charged and operating.”
“In my experience a lot of agencies are buying these [drones] as a multi-agency tool, utilizing it for public safety but also utilizing it for engineering, GIS, imagery of a new building or a school — stuff like that,” Gagliardo said.
Danbury does not pay for mapping software yet, but the city recently hired an outside agency to provide mapping software to utilize images captured from the air to create a detailed assessment of critical infrastructure like electric grids and water systems, said Matthew Cassavechia, Danbury's emergency management director.
He noted the fire department drone program has helped his department assess flooding and the city's evacuation capabilities along with playing an important role during emergency drills and training.
“To tie all of these information sharing capabilities into one in map form is certainly advantageous,” he added.
Brookfield’s plans
Under the plans submitted by the Brookfield Police Department, the drone's imaging and mapping capabilities could be made available for “overflights, pictures, and mapping of municipality-owned land as requested,” the police memo outlines in its list of use cases. They may also be used to help perform “inspections of otherwise inaccessible areas on buildings can be performed to identify maintenance or repair needs.”
The department's funding request would also provide additional equipment to assist local agencies during mutual aid operations in the Danbury area and beyond, something Gagliardo said he has done a lot of over the past four years.
“I have been everywhere from Washington Depot to Bedford, New York and then out to almost the Hartford and Waterbury area,” he said.
The Board of Finance expressed support for the plan at its meeting last week — but asked for figures showing any recurring costs that might exist in the future of the drone program. The Board of Selectmen voted to approve the funding request in February.
If approved, the money for the drones would be allocated from the department's outside services budget line item, according to the Chairman Glen Rooney, who addressed any public concern that may exist over privacy matters related to the enhanced surveillance capabilities.
“I have to assume this has all been vetted through the police department and through the selectmen's office that there is an understanding this is going to be used to spy on people this is going to be used for police business,” Rooney said.
On Tuesday, Donadio said future FAA license renewal tests and an annual payment of $1,449 for mapping software, in addition to any added training or equipment costs that might be incurred, would represent the continuing funding needs for the program.
To certify its drone-pilots, the department will pay for officers to take the consumer pilots test while securing federal waivers for some of the operation restrictions for things like flying at night, the police captain added. Anything beyond that is not needed at this point.
“We are looking to get in the door to really see what we can use it for,” Donadio said. “The opportunities are obviously boundless, but our focus is crash photogrammetry and search and rescue, and I think that is probably where it's going to stay for quite a while.”