The Denver Police Department is preparing to use drones to respond to 911 calls, joining several local law enforcement agencies in Colorado that are considering this high-tech approach to emergency response.
According to the Denver Post, the department has launched a program aimed at utilizing drones to handle certain 911 calls in the city. Sergeant Jermiah Gates, leader of the drone unit at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office explained, “This really is the future of law enforcement at some point, whether we like it or not.”
“I could fly the drone over (a reported suspicious vehicle) and say, ‘Hey, that vehicle is not out of place,’ and I never had to send an officer over to bother them and I can clear it with that,” Gates explained, per the Denver Post. “It’s saving resources.”
Several agencies already use drones for specific tasks like searching for missing persons or mapping crime scenes. However, Gates also emphasized that the sheriff’s office is considering deploying drones instead of officers in some situations.
The Denver Police Department has an outlined policy on drone use that includes a section regarding “Drones as a First Responder program.” The policy explains that sending drones before officers could tailor the response appropriately to avoid unnecessary escalation.
Phil Gonshak, director of the Denver Police Department’s Strategic Initiatives Bureau, clarified the department’s position to the Denver Post, ensuring that drones would not replace police officers entirely.
“We would never simply replace calls-for-service response by police officers,” Gonshak claimed.
“The DPD would respond to any call for service where someone is physically requesting a police officer on scene,” he continued. “But if there was a fight at Colfax and Cherokee and we put a drone in the air and there is no fight and nothing causing traffic issues, then we would reroute our police officers to other emergent calls.”
This initiative follows the Denver City Council’s recent decision to cut the police department’s budget by $8.4 million, reallocating those funds to address the surge of illegal immigrants in the city.
