The Portland City Council voted on Wednesday with little fanfare to expand the Portland Police Bureau’s drone program, giving authorities the opportunity to expand its use to all precincts and divisions despite pushback from some community members over surveillance concerns.
One key difference between the city’s drones and those of civilians: these tiny white machines with four propellers on each end will have big blue letters in all caps spelling POLICE.
Police Chief Bob Day in a statement Thursday said the program brings the Police Bureau in line with state law and other law enforcement partners. About 1,400 police departments use drones in some capacity, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Some neighboring ones include Gresham police and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
The expansion comes after police began a yearlong pilot in 2023 to use the tool to document crash scenes, watch traffic, respond to bomb threats, help in searches and respond to disasters. The City Council allocated $80,000 to help the Traffic Division and Metro Explosive Disposal Unit.
Wednesday’s vote brings an additional $98,000 to the program for additional training and equipment that Day said helps officers resolve incidents more quickly with less risk to the public and officers. Officials hope the drones will help them track stolen vehicles and illegal street racing.
Day wrote in a statement Thursday that police will be transparent in how they use the technology – pointing to the Police Bureau’s drone dashboard.
According to that dashboard, police deployed drones in 129 missions between June 2023 and July 2024. Thirty-four involved traffic incidents and 25 of them involved using drones to execute a search warrant.
In the pilot, the Police Bureau purchased 19 drones and trained and certified 16 pilots, according to Sgt. Jim DeFrain, and showed an 80% decrease in time spent mapping traffic scenes.
“Additionally, traffic investigators have begun conducting fly through videos like this of traffic vehicle trajectories and overhead views of crash locations, which have been exceptionally helpful when presenting a case to grand jury or in trial,” DeFrain said.
State law governs when drones can or can’t be used. They can’t be used for mass surveillance or facial recognition purposes. Harassing people is also out. Unless a critical incident occurs that threatens people’s lives and safety, drones can’t be used to manage crowds. They also cannot use the tool to establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause that an offense has been committed.
In public comments, two community members and one City Council candidate expressed concern with the expansion. Nicole Mercier, an artist, said the language in the Police Bureau’s new standard operating procedures that drones may be used to “enhance the protection of lives and property” is too vague given drones have “serious privacy and civil liberties implications.”
“If we are asked to give up our privacy and civil liberties, it must be done with careful consideration, perfect trust and clear guidelines,” Mercier stated.
Dan Handelman, of the police watchdog group Portland Copwatch, urged police to track and report demographic data in the Police Bureau’s drone use. Brian Conley, a candidate for City Council District 3, called for further safeguards.
One use of drones that was repeatedly brought up in City Council involved the technology being used to fly into a person’s residence. According to police, officers in August 2023 had a felony warrant for a man accused of first-degree robbery and used a drone to follow him into his apartment and search it remotely “without having to place officers or the public at risk.”
Police said the man was armed and that they found a shotgun inside his residence.
Smart City PDX, which worked with the Police Bureau on procedures, found a medium risk in its privacy impact assessment of the program. It recommended adding detailed information in high-interest cases to the drone dashboard and continuing to update it.
In the 14 months since the program was in place, DeFrain said no complaints were sent to the Independent Police Review.
Meanwhile, City Auditor Simone Rede continues to evaluate the Police Bureau’s surveillance technology. Rede found in 2023 the bureau had not fully addressed security concerns outlined in her review of police’s use of surveillance technology during Portland’s mass racial justice protests in 2020.
Rede declined to provide an update via email Thursday, writing that she would publish that information in an upcoming report.
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