The department bought six drones this year after voters approved Mayor London Breed’s Proposition E, which expanded police powers. Under the newly adopted measures, police are now allowed to use surveillance cameras and drones to pursue suspects believed to have committed felonies and violent misdemeanors.
According to SFPD equipment inventory records, the six drones cost $35,000, with maintenance, operational costs and battery replacement estimated to total approximately $40,000 annually.
Officers used drones three times in July, SFPD said in a statement Tuesday. The first instance occurred in the Mission District on the Fourth of July, when the department said a large crowd of people were spotted lighting explosives and fires and engaging in “other unsafe and illegal conduct.” Officers flew a drone over the scene to “evaluate risks to officers and gather intelligence,” SFPD said.
Officers flooded the scene and dispersed the crowd, according to SFPD. It was unclear whether police arrested any members of the crowd.
On July 26, eyewitnesses reported that two men on dirt bikes were breaking into cars along the Embarcadero. Police used a drone to watch the suspects until they parked their bikes, at which point officers chased them and arrested one of the suspects, SFPD said.
The following day, police used a drone to follow suspects that officers saw casing cars near the Embarcadero, SFPD said. After officers captured drone footage of the suspects breaking into a car and stealing property, they used spike strips to halt the suspects’ car and arrested the two suspects. According to SFPD, the officers also recovered all the stolen property.
The department is expected to buy more drones this year, police officials said. According to inventory records, SFPD may buy an additional 22 drones with equipment and software at a cost of $324,000, with annual recurring costs expected to total about $148,000.
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