The Syracuse Common Council on Monday ensured the police department’s proposed first responder program won’t take flight for at least another two weeks.
Councilor Chol Majok tabled a crucial vote on drone software until the council’s next voting session.
Majok, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, held an item authorizing the Syracuse Police Department to enter a five-year contract with Axon Enterprises to provide the department with software for its first responder drones. The software would cost just over $57,000.
The police department has already purchased drones for a “drone as first responder” program from Axon, according to Deputy Chief Richard Shoff. The program cannot begin until police obtain the software, Shoff said.
Council Pro Tempore Pat Hogan said during the council meeting that the council held the item to allow councilors to review the police department’s drone policy. Majok, who introduced the item, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the item.
Shoff told Hogan he had already provided the council with the policy.
“We’ll look it over,” Majok told Shoff. “It’s best we hold it until next voting session so that this can be digested and reflected.”
Shoff also provided Central Current with the policy, which can be viewed here.
The policy prohibits the police department using its drones:
- To conduct random surveillance activities.
- To target a person based solely on actual or perceived characteristics such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, economic status, age, cultural group, or disability.
- To harass, intimidate, or discriminate against any individual or group.
- To conduct personal business of any type.
The policy excludes any explicit language protecting protesters from police drone surveillance, a key concern of national surveillance watchdogs including the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The department in its drone policy also pledged to maintain a publicly accessible database documenting each time Syracuse police uses its first responder drones. Shoff told a Central Current reporter that the department will publish each first responder drone flight to that database.
The department also committed to publishing annual reports outlining the department’s use of its “drone as first responder” program.
Members of the Surveillance Technology Working Group, an oversight group created by Mayor Ben Walsh, called for these commitments when it first reviewed the drones.
Majok’s delaying of the drone software vote extends a saga dating back to November, when Syracuse police first sought approval to implement a controversial “drone as first responder” program.
The police department originally said it would use the program to send drones to the scenes of “high-priority” 911 calls like active shooter situations, hostage crises, and missing persons reports. This use aligned with the guardrails prescribed by the Surveillance Technology Working Group, which reviewed the technology and issued recommendations to limit the use of the drones to specified applications.
In April, though, as working group members collaborated with police personnel to iron out the policy for the first responder drones, Syracuse Police Department Lt. Brian Williams advocated to use the drones for any 911 call — including “low-priority” calls like vandalism, graffiti, and noise disturbances.
When the city held a public comment period, Syracuse residents lambasted the proposed drones. City respondents took issue with the technology itself, but also with the city’s attempt to sidestep its procedures to push the program through without proper review and public outreach.
Other respondents cited privacy concerns, pointing at the city’s ever-growing infrastructure of police surveillance tools – which includes license plate readers, COPS cameras, ShotSpotter, and more.
About 67% of respondents gave negative feedback about the proposed technology.
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, an advocacy group working to limit and reduce the proliferation of powerful technology within New York law enforcement agencies, submitted a report to the City of Syracuse arguing against the implementation of SPD’s proposed drone as first responder program.
Citing case uses in Chula Vista — the first American city to implement a “drone as first responder” program — STOP contends that the Syracuse Police Department’s proposed DFR program would subject law-abiding citizens to unwarranted surveillance, respond primarily to mundane, “low-priority” situations, and leverage reactive technology to proactively surveil protesters.
Above all, STOP is concerned with the potential for the Syracuse Police Department’s drones, and the data they collect, to facilitate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ongoing deportation operations.
“How will Syracuse’s immigrant population feel safe going to work, buying groceries, or picking up their children from school if a drone could fly overhead and give away their whereabouts to ICE?” STOP asked in its report, submitted to the city during the public comment period.
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