Shoreline Police test drones to help with 911 responses
Friday, September 18, 2026
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| Skydio Drone |
The purpose of this test is to see if a DFR program is a worthwhile investment.
The drones are activated when a dispatch comes in for a police response. The drones are often the first on the scene watching from above. The drone operator can then advise responding officers of the situation on the ground before they arrive. This can be especially important if Police are coming to a dangerous situation.
Drones can also respond to area checks for suspicious behavior prior to a patrol being dispatched. In some cases, the drone operators may determine that an in-person investigation isn’t necessary.
On the second day of tests, the drones flew 28 times and were the first on the scene 75% of the time. In 25% of those instances, they cleared the calls without the need for a patrol response.
The drones are not equipped with license plate readers and are not used for continual surveillance. They act as first responders and are used only to respond to calls that come through 911 dispatch.
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1 comments:
We cannot allow this violation of our civil liberties to happen in Shoreline! These drones open the door to a surveillance culture that we can't accept. Of course, the announcement says that the drones "are not equipped with license plate readers and are not used for continual surveillance," but is this really to be trusted? When ICE was formed in the early 2000s, did lawmakers say that they would end up killing two US Citizens? No. When flck cameras were put up across the entire US, they were first only capable of reading license plates. Once they ended up almost everywhere, then suddenly they begin receiving software updates that allows them to identify people, their clothing, our bikes and scooters, and they can even identify our pets! What is to say that if we allow police drones that aren't made to surveil, they wont just send an update out that adds AI to the cameras to allow them to "identify criminals" or some other bogus excuse five years from now?
The proof is in the pudding, anyway. Initially, Shoreline Police said they would only be borrowing drones for high-risk incidents, like public shootings. Now, a few years later, we want to get our own drones and use them as a first response? We must stop this encroachment on our civil liberties before drones become more and more normalized in our communities. How dystopian to be walking down the interurban trail and hear a buzzing from a drone following you trying to identify if you're a runaway criminal or not?
We must oppose this slow deterioration of our privacy rights and civil liberties before it is too late! I will be making a public comment on Monday, September 21st. I hope any of you reading it will be there to comment with me.
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