A photograph from the Syracuse City Council Chambers showing the council members reviewing documents during an open session.
Councilors sit in the Common Council chambers in City Hall. Pictured from left to right are Rita Paniagua, Pat Hogan, Corey Williams, Patrona Jones-Rowser and City Clerk Patricia McBride. Credit: Maddi Jane Brown | Central Current

The Syracuse Police Department has renewed its push to dispatch drones in response to 911 calls.

Syracuse Councilor Chol Majok, who chairs the Common Council’s Public Safety Committee, brought forward legislation that would allow the police department to buy “drone as first responder” software.

That marks the third time the council has considered allowing the department to buy the necessary software to begin using drones as first responders. In March, Sgt. Jason Wells and Lt. Brian Williams faced questions from councilors about the technology in a Public Safety Committee meeting. Their answers didn’t survive the councilors’ scrutiny, though, as the council withdrew the item from its agenda the following day.

The department’s attempt to advance its drone program comes on the heels of a post-mortem of the department’s failure to protect sensitive driver data. 

Majok declined to talk to a Central Current reporter about the drone proposal. 

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Majok said, walking away from a reporter. Majok then told a reporter to ask other councilors and the police about the drones. 

The police department has already purchased the drones it would use if the software expenditure is approved, Deputy Chief Richard Shoff said. The council approved the purchase of the drones last year.

Shoff believes the department could begin flying its first responder drones in as little as a few weeks if the council approves the expenditure during its vote on Monday. 

“Drone as first responder” programs have drawn scrutiny locally and across the country. Syracuse residents shredded the department’s proposed program in a public comment period. The program drew the most negative backlash of any police department-proposed surveillance technology. About 2 in 3 respondents, or 67%, gave negative feedback.  

Similar programs are proliferating across the country, alarming civil rights advocates, privacy activists, and surveillance technology watchdogs.

The Surveillance Technology Oversight Group, an advocacy group working to limit the steady flow of surveillance tools into police departments in New York State, submitted its own report during Syracuse’s public comment period.

STOP argued the program could allow outside entities to leverage Syracuse’s surveillance systems for nefarious purposes.

“Implementing the DFR program would give the Trump administration a convenient aerial view of Syracuse with which to target protesters, immigrants, pregnant people, people seeking gender-affirming care, and more,” STOP’s report read.

During the March meeting of the Public Safety Committee, councilors questioned the department’s press for the unrestricted option to send the first responder drones to any 911 call the department deems drone-worthy.

Shoff on Wednesday said that, although the department wants the choice to send the drones to all calls, it doesn’t have the capacity or interest to do that.

“We’re not going to send a drone to every single call, because they have to be charged,” Shoff said. “It’s not realistic.”

The department has finalized its drone as first responder policy, Shoff said. Central Current requested a copy of the policy from Shoff but did not receive the drone policy by the time of publication. 

I don’t want to talk to you

Chol Majok, the chair of the Syracuse Common Council’s Public Safety Committee, when asked about the police’s proposed drone program
Syracuse Common Councilor Chol Majok

Syracuse police’s pursuit of the police drone program began in November 2024, when the department requested approval to contract with drone provider Axon Enterprises. 

The Common Council in November unanimously approved that measure. Central Current’s ensuing reporting found the city had not allowed the Surveillance Technology Working Group to review the use of a “drone as first responder” program.

Syracuse police officials and the mayor’s office initially argued that the new drones — autonomous devices that would deploy themselves and fly to 911 calls — were a continuation of a tethered drone program the city already ran. They argued that would free the drones from review by the Surveillance Technology Working Group. 

At the time, Johannes Himmelreich, a member of the working group, said the tethered drones and “drone as first responder” program “have as much in common as a car and a cable car.”  

The city ultimately reversed its decision, subjecting the “drone as first responder” program to a full review by the working group and a corresponding public comment period.

While the department attempted to convince the council to approve a “drone as first responder” program, Shoff and other officials said the department would conduct outreach about the drones.

Shoff has spoken to several different media outlets on the program, and the department held an outreach event attended by 20 to 30 residents, the deputy chief said.

“I suspect that this is gonna be like the COPS cameras,” Shoff said. “There’s a lot of apprehension at first, and then before you know it, people are not gonna be worried about the drones. They’re gonna be wondering ‘why don’t they have more?’”

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...