Founder and Managing Partner
SANTA CRUZ — City leaders this week green-lighted a plan to purchase a handful of aerial drones for police use.
The Santa Cruz City Council-approved plan would allow the Santa Cruz Police Department to purchase as many as five Skydio X10 drones under a contract with Axon Inc., spending as much as $254,932 over five years.
The proposal, first introduced to the council during its Jan. 23 meeting and given a final unanimous vote Tuesday night, initially met with some community and council member concerns. No one spoke out on the matter this week, however.
During the January meeting, Councilmember Sonja Brunner thanked police officials for clarifying what purposes the drones would not be used for, including being weaponized; facial recognition; random surveillance activities; targeting, harassing, intimidating, discriminating against any individual, group or protected class; personal business; or routine monitoring of mass gathering, protests or demonstrations where security concerns or criminal activity do not exist.
“This concept of surveillance is a really scary thing for people,” Brunner said. “It’s physiological reactions. Even me, I’ve been pulled over, I’ve been pulled over for my tail light or brake light being out and it’s a scary experience, being someone of color.”
Brunner followed up with Police Chief Bernie Escalante, asking him what the consequences to his officers would be for violating the department’s prohibited use policies.
Escalante said the department used “progressive discipline” practices and that the response would depend on the severity of the violation. An example of gross negligence could lead to termination while a smaller violation would go through an internal review process, as well as be subject to review by the city’s independent auditor, he said.
Councilmember Sandy Brown, saying aloud ”drones can be used for good,” asked department officials about their plans for data retention. She was told that video footage retention would mirror existing department policies for body-worn camera footage, with non-evidentiary footage held for as long as two years. She was later able to have the motion amended to mandate that future reports on drone usage include where and how often data acquired through the use of drones was shared with outside entities, plus the name of the entities, as well as a breakdown of where the surveillance technology was deployed geographically in the relevant year.
Despite partnering with the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office for use of their fleet of drones in the past, Escalante told Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson that Santa Cruz was limited in that relationship by such factors as response time in general and should multiple incidents occur simultaneously.
The department listed intended drone uses to include: public safety emergencies, natural disaster response and management, search and rescue/water rescue, lost or missing person(s), investigation of suspicious or explosive device(s), crime scene documentation, traffic collision documentation, qualifying law enforcement or fire department mutual aid, search and/or arrest warrant, crime in progress and locating a fleeing suspect.
Community members speaking in opposition to the city contract listed concerns such as a waste of resources, increased militarization of the local police, potential profiling, drone crash dangers and other issues. Community activist Irene O’Connell said she has observed a trend toward increasing militarization locally and urged the council to vote no.
“I just want to encourage this Council to question, ‘Do we need to further militarize the police?,’ ” O’Connell said. “We are not the enemy, residents are not the enemy and I hope that the police department can use good judgment and that the council can use good accountability in making sure that that QR code of checking to see how these are being used.”
O’Connell was referring to a link posted during the meeting to the Santa Cruz Police Department’s “Transparency Portal,” at cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/police/transparency-portal.
The drone contract would include funds, initially drawn from the Police Department Asset Seizure 214 Fund, to outfit two patrol vehicles with operational equipment, purchase five drones, as well as software, subscriptions and personnel training. Funding for the drone program’s out years may come from grants, the asset seizure fund or the department’s general fund operating budget.
Per state law, the Santa Cruz Police Department needed to seek council approval for what is considered a military equipment purchase, along with making a subsequent update to the city’s military equipment use policy.