Given that the police department had little information so far on their use of the technology, he requested a separate vote. 'Why is this coming up this way?' Garcia asked at a recent briefing. 'We're the good guys, right?'īut Carlos Garcia, a council member who represents downtown and east Phoenix, said he was concerned by the structure of the program, which requested blanket approval of the drones across the city departments. 'Everybody likes fire,' as McDade himself put it. It's hardly a surprise that the city has chosen to debut the powerful tech with its fire department, given the scrutiny that will likely come with the tech's debut with the police. Lori Bays, assistant city manager, acknowledged that the police drone program is 'probably going to have the most need for community input.' And, for now, all questions about the drone program have been deferred to the fire department, said Ann Justus, spokesperson for Phoenix police.Īt a council committee meeting this month, fire officials laid out their vision for the program. Officials are drafting operating guidelines and rules regarding privacy that will eventually be made public. The police department's own plans for the technology currently are murky. Police are in line for drones after the city's fire, parks, water departments. Phoenix police plan to roll out the new technology during the third phase of the city's overarching drone program, on track to launch by the end of this year. So Phoenix police's own rollout of the tech is likely to face some scrutiny, particularly given the department is under investigation for what critics call a spotty civil rights track record. 'They are capable of highly advanced and near-constant surveillance,' according to one policy brief by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group. Phoenix police, for instance, will join hundreds of law enforcement agencies around the country that deploy the devices.Ĭritics warn, though, that at times, police use of drones has gone beyond their intended purpose - when, for instance, drones are equipped with artificial intelligence, purporting to identify crime on their own, or when the flying devices have weapons attached. And drones could make the department's arduous mountain rescues more efficient, allowing firefighters to find a distressed hiker trapped when it's hotter than 110 degrees out.ĭrone use in public safety operations is becoming commonplace. McDade points to important uses for the fire department: Drones could fly over a warehouse fire, identifying a sagging roof or hotspots. 'We think unlimited, how much these drones are going to help us,' said Phoenix Fire Captain Rob McDade. But the use of the tech for public safety is likely to raise serious questions of privacy and surveillance in the coming months, particularly once it falls into the hands of Phoenix cops.Īnd that is the plan, officials say, although the expansion of the technology beyond the fire department is still subject to council approval.

On June 1, the city of Phoenix will launch a new drone program, which will first outfit fire mountain rescue crews with the technology, and then expand to other departments - including the Phoenix police.įire officials say the drones are a breakthrough technology for their operations, giving firefighters a way to scope out a dangerous scene from afar. If you're hiking along a hot and dusty trail this summer and spy a drone in the sky, it could be the Phoenix Fire Department, responding to a crisis on the mountain from above.

Downtown phoenix drone