Chula Vista police said Wednesday they\u2019ve paused their proposal to use unmanned drones run by controversial surveillance company Flock.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of this time, the city is not moving forward\u201d with Flock\u2019s automated drones, a police department spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the agency will continue to use its current drones \u201cuntil it can evaluate available technologies and potential alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pause will also provide additional time for the telepresence marketplace to evolve and for other potential vendors to bring similar telepresence technology and capabilities to the market,\u201d the statement reads in part. \u201cBuilding and maintaining community trust and support is a top priority for the Chula Vista Police Department and is essential to deliver effective public safety services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in 2018, Chula Vista became the first city in the U.S. authorized to fly drones beyond the line of sight in response to 911 calls. Since then, police say they\u2019ve responded to more than 22,000 calls for service, launching from the rooftop of police headquarters and arriving before officers, who say the technology gives them critical information from above.<\/p>\n
But Chula Vista\u2019s drones have always been operated by pilots \u2013 sworn officers \u2013 at a cost of about $1.2 million a year, the department says. The department\u2019s current contract for the drone software services expires at the end of 2026, so in January, the agency began searching for unmanned drone options that would cut those staffing costs. <\/p>\n
In July, police presented to the city\u2019s Privacy Protection and Technology Advisory Commission their recommendation of Flock.<\/p>\n
Flock is best known for its automated license plate readers, the subject of nationwide backlash over concerns about data sharing and mass surveillance.<\/p>\n
Privacy advocacy group DeFlock has tracked more than 100 jurisdictions across the country that have deactivated their ALPR cameras or canceled their contract with Flock since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people don’t necessarily appreciate is the privacy, the civil rights and civil liberties problems that come along with those technologies. And that’s what we really need to guard against,\u201d said Tim Blood, who chairs San Diego\u2019s Privacy Advisory Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t want a drone racing off to a potential crime scene or potential disaster and taking pictures, for example, of everyone’s yards and backyards and through windows as it’s flying over,\u201d Blood said, noting that it\u2019s incumbent on jurisdictions using surveillance to put guardrails on how the technology is used.<\/p>\n
Flock declined NBC San Diego\u2019s interview request, as did Chula Vista police.<\/p>\n
In their report to the city’s privacy commission in July, police said the contract with Flock would have cost $400,000 in the first year and $700,000 annually for years two through five. <\/p>\n
But on Wednesday, police said there is no timeline on the pause in pursuing Flock as the agency continues to monitor and evaluate options for a replacement.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone should be concerned about privacy, probably more so than a lot of people realize,\u201d Blood said. \u201cThose people who say they have nothing to hide: Well, would you welcome police to come into your house at any time, day or night, and do a search of your house?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chula Vista police said Wednesday they\u2019ve paused their proposal to use unmanned drones run by controversial surveillance company…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1040038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,16214,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1040037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-chula-vista","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117204816093146633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}