by Jasmin Maurer
PEP Executive Director
Deaf to concerns raised by the community about privacy rights and safety, Police Chief Sam Dotson has begun the process of filing paperwork to fly a drone within the city of St. Louis. Last Wednesday, he fielded questions at Webster University’s Holden Policy Forum, but the question of whether community input would be sought was left unanswered, as the conversation disregarded concerns raised and instead focused on the repeated mantra that he was acting to save money and keep St. Louis safe.
It’s troubling that a man put in charge to ensure the safety of St. Louis residents seems unwilling to work with those residents on whether or not a drone truly is the right solution for fighting crime. The forum last week wasn’t even a conversation, functioning more like a platform for the police department to announce the drone was in the works and would be here soon.
It’s also concerning that Chief Dotson believe the drone would save the city money, but can offer no evidence to prove this. All evidence in other cities points in the other direction. The day before the forum, a news article detailed how millions have been wasted by city police buying drones. One of its examples was the Gasden Police Department in Alabama, who purchased a drone for $150,000 using a federal grant. On its first surveillance mission, the drone crashed into a tree and hasn’t been used since.
Of course, if local police followed the story of how drones are used abroad in the United State’s global war on terror, they would understand that drones aren’t the super cost-savers that they’re advertised to be. They’re unmanned vehicles that require a lot of on-the-ground support with tendency towards crashing and missing their targets.
The situation here in St. Louis appears to be yet another example of local police wanting to get their hands on the latest technological toy, regardless of whether or not that toy is what’s best for the city. No plan was ever presented detailing exactly how money will be saved by the drone’s use, nor to settle a justified concern over privacy rights. We are simply to take Chief Dotson’s word that everything will work better here.
As police brutality tops headlines around the country, I hesitate to put a weapon such as a drone into the hands of our local police force. As one man brought up at the forum, if the problem of high crime rates is systemic, how will a drone solve that? The answer is that it will not. Militarizing the police does not solve poverty or other underlying problems that cause crime. Instead they open up a path for abuse of power, something I think we all should be concerned about.
If Chief Dotson truly cared about the safety of the St. Louis people, he would hold real discussions with its residents about how to address crime in the city. He would also wait until privacy concerns were adequately addressed and protections were put in place before flying a drone over the public spaces of our city.
