SerpApi.Org
Schenectady police are expanding their use of technology such as drones, pole cameras and 3D scene scanners, saying the tools are helping officers respond to calls and solve cases more quickly, even as some residents and advocates raise concerns about privacy and accountability.
The expansion is being supported by a $650,000 state grant.
Rosanna Rosado, Commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, said the state is seeing measurable results tied to the technology. “We have anecdotal evidence of stories that have been told, but we also have raw data, and we have a 55% drop in this region alone,” Rosado said.
MORE: Rensselaer County District Attorney talks Flock cameras
Schenectady Police Chief Brian Whipple said the department’s drone program is not intended for surveillance. “We are not trying to surveil anybody, the cameras while they're flying, they fly in an upward position, so we're not spying anyone's backyards,” Whipple said. He added that “all of our drone flights are recorded so they can see where we are, where we've been.”
Some of the concern in the Capital Region has been fueled by debate in Troy over the use of Flock pole cameras after the Troy Police Department expanded its system without public discussion.
When asked about reassuring residents that this technology is not misused by the police, Troy Police Chief Dan DeWolf responded, “Because I've told them that I can't speak for other places but in the city of Troy, in the Troy Police Department, it's not being misused.” DeWolf added, “And I've explained how it's used, why it's used, the successes that we've had.”
Whipple also sought to distinguish Schenectady’s approach from Troy’s, saying Schenectady does not plan to adopt Flock. “We are not using Flock, we've never used Flock, we use Axon, we have used Axon for several years,” he said.
Both Flock and Axon have a standard retention rate of 30 days.
MORE: Rensselaer County Sheriff's Department exploring use of Flock drones
Rosado said agencies using the technology are expected to follow rules and training standards: “Across the board, we have protocols, and we have ethical training for the use of technology that's very important, both for us and for the police departments,” she said. Rosado added, “And I think we have to do a better job of explaining that to the public, so they know that the use of this technology is to solve crimes and prevent crimes.”
But does this technology go against civil liberties?
“Schenectady's move to flood the sky with invasive drones is a privacy nightmare and does little to make residents safer,” said Daniel Schwarz, Senior Privacy & Technology Strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “There is no evidence that drones provide meaningful benefits for communities or work well as first responders — in reality, these programs shift funding away from in-person, human responders and make it easy for bad actors to discriminate against New Yorkers. Without tight restrictions on drone use, access, data sharing, and retention, local residents' privacy rights will be at risk.”
