A blue wooden sign with golden engraved letters reads "City of Syracuse, Dept. of Police" on a green lawn outside of the police station downtown. A blue sky shines down on the scene.
Syracuse Police headquarters on South State Street in downtown Syracuse. Credit: Julie McMahon | Central Current

Syracuse Police Department officials are arguing for the expansion of its new drone program — before it’s approved. 

Lt. Brian Williams argued that the department should deploy drones to low-priority incidents in response to a draft of proposed regulations for the “drone as first responder” program. A group of tech experts and city employees compiled the proposed regulations. 

A city press release earlier this year laid out specific potential uses for the drones, including “shots fired, search and rescue situations, burglaries, and high priority calls.”

When members of the city’s Surveillance Technology Working Group suggested the set of regulations at the beginning of March, Williams wrote the drones are most useful for calls like vandalism, noise complaints and in some pursuits of illegal off-road vehicles. 

“The (drones) are most beneficial in clearing low-priority calls,” Williams said. “Limiting the types of calls that it may respond to would eliminate a major benefit of the program.”

In an email to Central Current, department spokesperson Kieran Coffey confirmed Williams’ point: Syracuse police believe they can use the drones for both low- and high-priority calls, he wrote. Coffey did not answer questions about whether the department had changed their position on how to operate the program and the reasoning behind a potential switch. 

The Surveillance Technology Working Group appears to have found Williams’ and the department’s argument compelling. In a finalized draft of the recommendations approved and released by the working group on Tuesday, language putting prohibitions on the program had been edited down, allowing the drone program to be used for all service calls. It’s unclear whether the recommendations are binding or enforceable. 

Mayor Ben Walsh signed off on the approval of the working group’s recommendation. It’s likely the Common Council will soon vote on whether the department can seek or use funding for the drones.

One member of the working group said he worries about the department’s expanded use of the DFR drones. 

Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology strategist with the New York Civil Liberties Union who sits on the mayor’s working group, said the department’s objections to the group recommendations for the DFR program could transform how policing is conducted in city neighborhoods. 

Schwarz is the only member of the working group to vote against the recommendation sent to Walsh.

“It’s really, really a slippery slope,” he said.

Read more about Syracuse police’s drone proposal:

Concerns about SPD’s comments come after the DFR program and its implementation have been the subject of public scrutiny for months. Members of the public left nearly 100 comments disapproving of the program during the public comment period that ended Feb. 13. That was slightly more than two-thirds of all public comments submitted — the most negative feedback the city has ever received for a surveillance technology program. 

The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a national privacy watchdog, submitted a report on DFR programs to the city in February, urging against adopting the program, and calling for strict limitations if the program is eventually enacted.

In the working group’s draft recommendations, members outlined a list of potential prohibited uses. These included low-level offenses like vandalism and noise complaints, as well as traffic enforcement.

Williams responded to the group’s suggestions, writing that he wanted officers to operate DFR drones without restriction during those low-level offenses. 

“DFR is most beneficial to these types of calls,” Williams wrote. “Should not be restricted for these.”

He also noted that the department should also be able to use the drones for spotting ATVs and dirt bikes during a traffic pursuit and in support of an ATV detail.

“This could reduce risk to both the public and officers,” Williams wrote. “A majority of attempted stops on ATV’s and dirtbikes result in them fleeing and the use of a [drone] would allow us to follow them without pursuing, making it safer for the public, the operator and the police.”

Proponents of the DFR program have said officers can gain critical situational information on volatile emergency situations by having an eye in the sky. 

SPD, for instance, has insisted for months that the new drone program will reduce response time and increase public safety. Recent investigative reporting and studies by civil rights advocates cast doubt on those claims. 

Will Owen, the communications director for STOP, said the plan to target off-road vehicles could be intrusive for residents.

“And it’s an example of a routine issue that might come up that is not some major emergency,” Owen said.

The working group in its draft also recommended prohibiting DFR flights for:

  • General surveillance or routine patrol. 
  • Monitoring of protests, demonstrations, or other First Amendment activities.
  • Low-level offenses (vandalism, minor disturbances, noise complaints).
  • Homeless encampment monitoring except during life-threatening emergencies.
  • Traffic enforcement.
  • Immigration enforcement. 
  • Code enforcement actions.
  • Personal use by department personnel.

Schwarz said that SPD’s pushback against the group regulations could embolden the department to deploy the drones more frequently.

“They want to use it for really minor things like vandalism, graffiti, noise complaints, so really flying them in response to any call,” he said. “Their argument is that it saves officer time. But it will really mean ushering in a total state of surveillance.”

Working group members commenting on the document also called for more public input, echoing requests from some of the approximately 100 community members who chimed in during the public comment process. 

Jen Tifft, the city’s director of strategic initiatives, recommended the department hold one or more community meetings to directly answer questions from the public.

No public meetings have been scheduled yet, but the majority of responses gathered during the public comment period that ended on Feb. 13 were negative. 

Schwarz said that the public’s input did not appear to significantly reshape the working group’s discussions on the drones or drafted stipulations.

For Owen, SPD has largely dismissed negative community feedback.

“It is really, really belittling of the public in Syracuse, and I think reveals the tenuous relationship that police departments often have with their communities,” Owen said.

The department also plans to make the data it collects on a website dedicated to tracking each drone flight, Williams wrote in the document. SPD was supposed to create a public database for its flights related to other drone programs four years ago, but no site appears to exist.

If such a database had been constructed, it would have shown that the police department was sometimes using drones from the fire department – an undocumented deployment of powerful technology.

Ultimately, the working group appears to have caved to Syracuse police on its recommendation to limit the use of the drones to emergencies and high-priority calls.

Schwarz said residents’ fears around the drone program are well-placed. 

“I think what was clear from the public comment phase is that people are very worried about the police department infringing on their privacy,” Schwarz said. “Surveillance being conducted without the necessary protections.”

This story references draft stipulations written by the Surveillance Technology Working Group. They are available on the city of Syracuse’s website or you can click this link here to read the draft.

Read more of Central Current’s coverage

Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...