San Francisco Police Department’s Drone Program Takes Flight: A Look at Phase One

San Francisco’s police offi­cers have a new tool in their arse­nal: drones. After a long hia­tus, the San Fran­cis­co Police Depart­ment (SFPD) has rein­tro­duced air sup­port to its oper­a­tions, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in pub­lic safe­ty tech­nol­o­gy. We high­light salient ele­ments of Phase One of the SFPD’s drone deploy­ment, pro­vid­ing an overview of the pro­gram’s struc­ture, pro­ce­dures, and reg­u­la­tions.

SFPD’s Drone Pro­gram: Phase One

The SFPD’s drone pro­gram, recent­ly approved by vot­ers, is designed to enhance law enforce­ment capa­bil­i­ties in var­i­ous ways. From faster response times to improved sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, drones offer a range of ben­e­fits that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact pub­lic safe­ty. The ini­tial phase of the pro­gram, known as Phase One, involves six drones used exclu­sive­ly for law enforce­ment pur­pos­es, such as crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions and crit­i­cal inci­dents.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Pro­gram Man­ag­er: The Tech­ni­cal Ser­vices Unit (TSU) over­sees the UAS pro­gram, with a des­ig­nat­ed Pro­gram Man­ag­er ensur­ing com­pli­ance with all reg­u­la­tions and poli­cies.
• UAS Oper­a­tor: Trained and cer­ti­fied mem­bers of the TSU or Tac­ti­cal Unit are respon­si­ble for the safe oper­a­tion of the UAS.
• UAS Visu­al Observ­er: Trained mem­bers assist the oper­a­tor in main­tain­ing visu­al con­tact with the UAS and ensur­ing safe oper­a­tions.

Authorized Use and Restrictions

Drones are autho­rized for use in active crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions, major and crit­i­cal inci­dents, and poten­tial­ly in vehi­cle pur­suits in the future. How­ev­er, there are strict pro­hi­bi­tions against using drones for non-law enforce­ment pur­pos­es, infring­ing on First Amend­ment rights, or equip­ping them with weapons.

Deployment Procedures

Crit­i­cal inci­dent requests for drone deploy­ment fol­low the Depart­ment Gen­er­al Order 8.01 process. Oth­er requests are rout­ed through the Depart­ment Oper­a­tions Cen­ter (DOC), with the UAS Pro­gram Man­ag­er or designee mak­ing the final deci­sion on deploy­ment. Oper­a­tors have the author­i­ty to decline mis­sions based on safe­ty or pol­i­cy con­cerns.

Training and Data Management

Only trained and cer­ti­fied per­son­nel can oper­ate the drones. Com­pre­hen­sive train­ing pro­grams are in place for both oper­a­tors and visu­al observers. Data col­lect­ed dur­ing drone oper­a­tions is care­ful­ly man­aged, with strict reten­tion and shar­ing poli­cies in accor­dance with legal require­ments and pri­va­cy con­cerns.

Part­ing Thoughts

The SFPD’s adop­tion of drone tech­nol­o­gy reflects a com­mit­ment to lever­ag­ing inno­va­tion for pub­lic safe­ty. While the use of drones in law enforce­ment rais­es impor­tant ques­tions about pri­va­cy and civ­il lib­er­ties, the SFPD’s robust pol­i­cy frame­work seeks to address these con­cerns. As the pro­gram pro­gress­es beyond Phase One, it will be inter­est­ing to see how drones con­tin­ue to shape the future of polic­ing in San Fran­cis­co, strik­ing a bal­ance between tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ment and indi­vid­ual rights.

For more infor­ma­tion:

• San Fran­cis­co Police Depart­ment
• Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA)