Aurora police drone program draws community concern

Aurora police visited the northeast Aurora community at a town hall held by Aurora City Council Member Gianina Horton to talk about the police department's new "Drone as a First Responder" program that officials say has helped crack down on crime.

Some community members who were in attendance have concerns, especially about their privacy.

"A drone was stopped over my property for 20 minutes as you started talking," Dr. P.J. Parmar said in the meeting. He later provided that video to CBS News Colorado.

"When you might see the drone near or over your backyard. He's probably not even looking anywhere near you in the upwards of a mile off," an APD officer said in response.

Jan Kalkus is a healthcare worker at Mango House, a community hub on East Colfax Avenue. He and his colleagues say what the police are telling them doesn't match their experiences. They say they have seen drones hover over their property for many minutes at a time.

"I think there are legitimate uses for it," Kalkus said; however, "it's important to know that that's how it's being used."

APD says they know this is a new experience for many, but they want people to know they follow a strict policy to protect resident privacy.

"Obviously, the community is going to have questions about something that's new, which is why we've taken the approach to really be upfront and public about our use of the technology," said Phillip Rathbun, deputy chief of the Professional Standards and Training Division for the Aurora Police Department. "All of our flight logs are posted online. You can go to our website and find that from our real-time information center. In fact, we're going to be expanding, some of that in the future."

"We can't go over and fly it over your house. Look into your backyard that is completely fenced off, see what you're doing, and then monitor it, and then report back on it," an officer said at the town hall.

Residents also worry that the video APD collects will be shared with Flock, the company working with APD on this project, to enhance its AI program and build databases.

"So ultimately, this video is our video," said Rathbun. "And so, the retention of that is up to us. In fact, when we talked about that, evidence, and with those videos as we collect those, those are actually moved over into a different system in our department."

Residents are hesitant to take APD at their word.

"There's issues of trust in the community. And I saw these drones starting last summer flying over my properties," said Parmar.

That's especially been the case since the website APD created to track drone flights seems to not to be updated right after every flight.

"They are delayed for reasons, obviously, to protect our active investigations," Rathbun said.

Kalkus says he thinks only time will tell if APD follows its own policies to protect privacy.

"It sounds nice. It would just be nice to be able to see that in practice," he said.

APD asks the community to give them time to earn the public's trust with this new program, because it's just a crime-fighting tool that will not only keep officers safe but also the community at large.

"This technology is focused on response to criminal activity," said Rathbun.