Police plan to use drones as first responders, calling the technology "future of law enforcement"

Several local law enforcement agencies in Colorado, including the Denver Police Department (DPD), are making plans to start dispatching drones instead of officers to respond to 911 calls.

"This really is the future of law enforcement at some point, whether we like it or not," Sgt. Jeremiah Gates, who leads the drone unit at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, told The Denver Post.

At least 20 agencies in Colorado’s Front Range already use drone technology for certain tasks, like searching for missing people, tracking fleeing suspects, mapping crime scenes or overhead surveillance during SWAT operations. Now the sheriff’s office is considering using them to respond to some 911 calls in situations where the drones might be able to provide useful information from the location of an incident before officers are deployed...

However, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said she’s concerned about how the normalization of drone usage by government agencies could impact people’s freedoms.

"We’re worried about what it would mean if drones were really just all over the skies in Colorado," Laura Moraff told The Denver Post. "We are worried about what that would mean for First Amendment activities, for speech and organizing and protesting — because being surveilled by law enforcement, including by drones, can change the way people speak and protest."