The Walnut Creek City Council will hear a report tonight about the possible acquisition of drones by the city’s police department for use in a number of law enforcement scenarios.
The report will focus on how drones are useful for police. Some uses mentioned in the report are explosives disposal, response to hazardous materials spills, search-and-rescue missions, aiding in responses to barricaded suspects, hostage situations, active shooters, apprehension of armed and dangerous and/or violent fleeing suspects and high-risk search warrants, and overviews of disaster scenes.
The report also mentions two occasions over an August 2019 weekend during which Walnut Creek police asked for help from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s drone team. One was to help with the search for a missing elderly woman with dementia and the other to respond to a call of a young man who was threatening suicide with a gun.
In a survey of residents by the city earlier this year, which drew 471 responses, 82.4 percent said they support the idea of Walnut Creek police using drones, and 14.9 percent oppose it.
In Contra Costa County, the Sheriff’s Office and police departments in Pittsburg, Richmond, Antioch and San Ramon have active drone programs.
The cost of a program in Walnut Creek is estimated at about $50,000.
The Walnut Creek City Council isn’t scheduled to take any action on tonight’s report.
The meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., will be done remotely.
37 comments
Love these tools for the cops. WE need to get the bad guys. I am sure we will hear about how people’s privacy will be compromised. The lawyers will be hired to fight this. I hope they loose. I guess they would rather have human cops snooping around on them and costing them more money. Bawaaaa waaa. Po baby dat too bad.
Tools…? Correction – toys for the PD. They’ve done just fine in the past without them.
Cities that with police drones typically do have privacy policies, and limitations on use. Most people don’t want to live in a society with all-seeing eyes flying in the sky. If Walnut Creek gets drones, there will be a privacy policy, and yes it will involve lawyers. Privacy, the right to be protected from unreasonable surveillance, is valued in our society..
A human cop isn’t comparable to the capabilities of a drone, which can get overhead views, zoom, and record,
Drones can be good, and can be bad. It depends on the policies that govern how they are used.
CPD should invest. Allow drones to hover over Diamond Blvd and other burglary hotspots. CPD won’t even have to take their feet off their desks.
Probably more important to mention is there going to be talking to telecom tonight about installing 5G in Walnut Creek. There are at least 15 sites. Considering the 60 GHz millimeter wave technology has not been tested on humans. This is a guinea pig experiment.
Based on the comments here, people will beg for this with open arms.
No mention about the drones making sure you’re keeping your 6 foot social distancing and shelter-in-place.
5G deployment……so Walnut Creek can be the next epicenter for an outbreak.
Do you have to get a 5G phone to use this service in the future? They cannot update your exhisting smart phones I guess.
Oh please!
We already have one poster here (anon) who claims that Covid-19 is being spread by the rollout of 5G.
Popcorn, most phones don’t have the 5G bands on them. Surprised? See, once someone has a working phone how are you going to get them to buy another one every two years? Just follow the money.
As for drones I can see some effective use for them by police but also abuse so we the citizens need to keep a watchdog approach.
Do you know where this telecom takes place? And if it is available to the public?
Oops I misspelled existing!
Yeah, I’m sure everybody noticed that! 😀
And you misspelled “loose” should be lose.
As well as “lose” in your first post.
Also misspelled “poor” and “that”. 🙂
$20 says the $50,000 is for 3 DJI drones and training. Now’s the perfect time to support Chinese manufacturing.
I wonder what the statistics are for indoor crime versus outdoor crime in Walnut Creek?
Difference between the men and the boys, are the price of their toys.
Does the city still have the big old RV that was called Orca. Used to see it at The Walnut Festival.
The WC council will go for anything that they think makes them look cool. Remember the robot delivery presentation. I was there as the cooler on wheels was put through it’s paces. I also noticed the vendor’s guy directing it from his phone in the back of the room. Sold. What exactly is the rule about shooting down thing hovering over my yard?
New Mayor needed now. Current old bat has the council members under her thumb and too scared to have opinions that aren’t hers.
Should have FLIR for night time flights. FLIR makes a plug in add on for cell phones so they should make one for drones.
City Council should make FLIR a condition of adoption.
https://www.flir.com/suas/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=eTcGIeFnoTg&feature=emb_logo
Have an early version (8-10 year old) on an old apple 5 phone use it at home and work.
Usually my iPhone tells on me when I misspell the words! Oh well… that is so petty! Who cares? I DO!! Ha ha. Thanks for the info about the upgrade on 5G! I would not consider getting a new iPhone when my iPhone 7 works great! Bought it 2016! I guess that is ancient! Tuff! Love it!
No worries popcorn…everyone wants to be an English teacher.
It just gets more Orwellian if not dystopian everyday, and most people eat it up as “good” for our safety, etc. Those elites in charge must be even more amazed than even they expected watching the lemmings go over the cliff to cull the herd further. On top of this, during the pre-planned Covid 19 fear-pandemic used to close schools, businesses, many sections of hospitals, airports, etc., 5G is most-likely being rolled-out and installed. The ill effects caused by 60 gigahertz technology will cull the masses further, but this will simply be instead blamed on the never-ending cycles of Covid19 or some other phantom or fake virus “they” conjure up as illnesses and fatalities grow exponentially. As the old song goes: When Will We Ever Learn?
For those of you who want to understand the implications of radio frequencies including 5G technology–EMF exposure– mirroring alleged viral pandemics over the last hundred years, please read the following article:
https://www.goldismoney2.com/threads/a-big-change-in-emfs-preceded-each-pandemic.326660/
I read that, it’s pure bull. What about the great plague in London 1665? Not much radio going on then was there? This article is the perfect example about why correlation is not the same as causation. You’ve got it all wrong.
@Jojo Potato: Of course plagues have existed throughout history; so what is your point stating the obvious? That doesn’t negate the obvious correlations that the article meticulously cites as evidence for other alleged plagues throughout the last 100 or more years. You need to think critically before you deny the articles thoroughly cited and referenced material. Of course, in your mind, it appears everything that happens in this world, no matter real or imagined, is true and or simply coincidental, as no conspiracies have ever, now or in the past, existed. As Mark Twain said: “It Is Easier To Fool People Than To Convince Them That They’ve Been Fooled.” Please put on your thinking cap!
Peter, it’s so easy to prove you wrong, but more enjoyable to watch you wallow. You’re so right when you posted “It Is Easier To Fool People Than To Convince Them That They’ve Been Fooled.”, which includes you. Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of it, hopefully. Keep posting!
I like the “a guy ate an undercooked bat” story better.
Of course they should have a drone. What better way to look for guys who run and hide in backyards and the like. The only way to find them is to go into the yard and HOPE not get shot or clubbed or jumped.
To deny them a drone is aiding abetting the criminal element!
NO WAY – For now, they’re saying it’s just for those scenarios.
But once approved, they will use it for any scenario they want… hovering over our backyards.
Our Founding Fathers warned us not to give up our power or rights because we will never get it back & it’ll be stripped away in a gradual process but once we realize it, it’ll be too late to do anything about it.
Our Founding Fathers were the people who just broke away from England’s absolute power from the King so they understood the significance.
Anonymous – You missed my point.
As you give up your rights, authorities will eventually overreach & begin monitoring everyone at all times. Example is the Patriot Act when NSA infiltrated the underwater cables in the Atlantic Ocean & Pacific Ocean for the internet to monitor us thru our laptop cameras, emails sent, our browser history, websites visited, etc. that Edward Snowden exposed.
It’s not about someone doing something in their backyard illegal, it’s about authorities monitoring us 24 hours a day whether we’re doing something illegal or not.
citizens aren’t allowed to fly drones feeely, so they shouldn’t be allowed either.
we can’t because of privacy issues. noise, and near by airports.
If the restrictions are legit, shouldn’t those restrictions be applied to law enforcement too?
No drones! In the name of “security”, people give up their privacy and freedoms.
Absolutely not and I agree with the poster above our founding fathers would never allow something like that buzzing Around our neighborhoods spying on all of us… you have to be real naïve to think they wouldn’t do something like that.
I would consider attending, but I have a feeling they would just drone on and on…
Lafayette cops already have em. I think they should be deployed when actively searching for a suspect or perhaps, PERHAPS as general security surveillance during public events like say the Lafayette art and wine. Allowing then pd to deploy them whenever they feel like it will annihalate civilian privacy and be absolutely ripe for abuse. Oh you like to shower on the third floor w window open? You’ll be a fav of the PD. Having no restrictions will lead to police leaving them up as a matter of course which is unthinkably unacceptable if you believe in a right to privacy.
Aerial Intelligence Group is a local Bay Area company that is working to develop, support and expance drone programs for local law enforcement groups as well as global businesses. Happy to talk.
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