Dunwoody police drones now beat officers to 911 calls
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Next time you dial 911 in Dunwoody, the first responder to arrive on the scene could be hovering 400 feet above you, humming and watching.
Driving the news: Dunwoody is the latest law enforcement agency in metro Atlanta to deploy drones that can fly to emergencies and gather intel faster than officers can drive through suburban gridlock.
Why it matters: Police surveillance technology is big business in metro Atlanta, where a connected network of public and private — and not always functioning — cameras, license plate readers and other tech have made our home one of the most surveilled places per capita in the world.
State of play: For the past several months, Dunwoody Police have launched a Flock Safety drone from a climate-controlled nest on top of City Hall that can travel nearly anywhere in the city in 90 seconds, according to the law enforcement agency
- The Atlanta-based company's Drone as First Responder Program vehicles hover hundreds of feet in the air to provide police an early vantage point of an emergency, Tom Pethtel, Flock's vice president of engineering, told Axios.
- In some cases, the drone can arrive before the 911 call operator finishes logging a caller's details.
Yes, but: The American Civil Liberties Union, privacy advocates, and some communities where Flock's and other companies' products are used raise concerns about targeted monitoring of individuals and groups and what the company and police do with the data and information they collect.
- The ACLU calls on police departments to only use drones when they have a warrant or during an emergency and only keep images when there's a "reasonable suspicion" that they contain evidence.
What they're saying: Pethtel says the drones are designed to complement the work of on-the-ground officers, not roving patrols.
- Holly Beilin, a Flock spokesperson, told Axios the company maintains "transparency portals" to inform the public about how long the data is stored, what the technology can and can't be used for, what entities have access to the data, and more.
Zoom out: Police departments in Brookhaven, Atlanta and other metro cities have used drones to respond to 911 calls.
Catch up quick: Founded in 2017 by Georgia Tech graduates Garrett Langley and Matt Feury, the startup unicorn is valued at more than $7.5 billion and employs more than 130 people.
- 4,500 law enforcement agencies across the country use its surveillance cameras, automatic license-plate readers and drones, according to the company.
On Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp joined the company to open a 97,000-square-foot factory in Smyrna.