The Bloomington Police Department [BPD] now has a green light to place drone docks on Bloomington-Normal Reclamation District [BNWRD] property. Permission came through an intergovernmental agreement passed at BNWRD’s Sept. 14 meeting, with the board approving plans to host two docking stations.
The agreement clears the way for BPD to pursue remote operation of its drone fleet by housing docks on the city's far east and west sides. The City of Bloomington agrees to provide and maintain the equipment and obtain telecommunications service for the docking stations, which are to be located at the CSO Lagoon, a sewer overflow facility located on West Washington Street, and the GE Valley Pump Station on the city’s east side.
Sgt. Jared Bierbaum is the department’s drone coordinator. He said the partnership with BNWRD wasn't intuitive at first.
“They have been absolutely great,” he said. “I didn't really realize this, but it makes perfect sense, that they already use drones to inspect their sites.”
The goal is to fully implement dock drones as part of BPD operations sometime this year.
“We want to do it right, and we want to do it transparent,” Bierbaum said. “We want to make sure these partnerships are the correct ones to make, because this is a long-term plan for us. This is not necessarily a pilot program. This is something that we’re trying to lay the groundwork to do. So, we want to make sure that the BNWRD [agreement] is advantageous for everybody.”
Hands free
Bierbaum said remote drone operation will be a new addition for BPD. Currently, the fleet can only be operated by a controller. That means a drone can’t fly until an officer trained to fly it arrives at the scene.
BPD has not launched dock drones yet, but they were purchased as part of a multiyear technology upgrade. He describes the contraption as looking similar to a Weber grill. A hood protects the drone from the elements in a climate-controlled box which also acts as a charging station.
“This is newer technology for us,” Bierbaum said. “There are a lot of police departments across the country and across the state of Illinois that already deploy drones with docks.”
Bierbaum studied the issue as part of his master’s thesis, talking to drone coordinators across the state.
Faster response times
Once implemented, the dock system will allow a drone to be deployed when dispatch announces a call for service, rather than waiting for a pilot to arrive on the scene.
“You don't have to park the car anymore, get the drone out of the box, power the drone up, fly the drone. The drone is ready to go in the dock, and then it flies.”
Bierbaum said the potential for reducing response times is the biggest benefit to being able to site drone docks in the east and west corridors of the city. A remote-operated drone could have eyes on a scene before an officer even arrives.
That was the pitch Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli made to the Normal Town Council while looking to fund a pilot year with a Flock-branded first responder drone [DFR]. During its one-week trial with a remote-operated drone, Peoria Police officers avoided a high-speed chase by using the drone to track down a stolen ambulance.
“There’s a lot of anecdotal stories that, you know, second shift, 11 o’clock at night, there’s a young female on the railroad tracks and we probably wouldn’t have been able to find her, or at least as fast,” Bierbaum said. “The old school, we all get online and start looking, calling out the name. But we fly a drone—and this did happen a couple months ago—and 32 seconds later using the thermal, we were able to locate her and get her to services.”
BPD has 23 pilots, certified to operate drones by the Federal Aviation Administration. All are sworn officers. Bierbaum said he aims to ensure a pilot is available on all three shifts and various units like SWAT and vice. He will be recruiting more officers to get certified as the dock program is implemented.
Whether to hire civilian aviators or train dispatch personnel to operate drones is an open question—one Bierbaum said many departments are pondering.
“Right now, that’s one of the implementation questions,” he said. “We’re thinking through that right now. I think other agencies are thinking through that right now, because that’s a complicated question. What we try to do is get the cops to do the job that the taxpayer wants them to do: Go to the scene. Do stuff that drones can’t do. Talk to people.”
Not an LPR
Bloomington’s fleet is primarily Skydio brand, equipped with a camera, thermal gauge, parachute and speaker, allowing officers to communicate audio to individuals within earshot of the drone. Bierbaum said that can be useful for de-escalating certain situations and reducing risk of harm to both officers and civilians. Every flight is recorded on the department’s transparency portal with an explanation of its purpose.
“Illinois is one of, if not the most restrictive states for drone use in the country,” said Bierbaum. “We have very comprehensive statutes of how cops can use drones.”
State law prevents law enforcement from installing drones with facial recognition technology.
“You can’t take pictures and dump them into [facial recognition] software later. You can’t use your live feed for it. You cannot do it,” said Bierbaum. “That’s good, because it makes it more legitimate and people are more accountable.”
Can a drone be hacked? Yes, Bierbaum said, “because it’s technology.”
But a drone itself is simply an unmanned aircraft, which can be equipped with all sorts of tools. Skydio was selected by BPD, in part, because they’re made in the U.S.
“It’s as safe as you can be,” he said. “It hasn’t been hacked yet; I’ll say that.”
Illinois law also prevents weaponizing a drone or adding an automatic license plate reader. Camera data from each fight is only retained if it's needed as evidence in an investigation.
Drones aren't used to clock speeding [they aren't equipped with radar] and don't monitor constitutionally protected activities like a protest. They also cannot be deployed proactively as a non-human “patrol officer.”
“You can’t do that. It’s against the law to begin with.”
Those tight restrictions aren’t universal. Rather, they only apply to law enforcement who use drones. Bierbaum encouraged people who notice drones above a protest, for example, to visit the department’s drone portal and compare it with BPD’s flights. If it’s not in the portal, he said, it wasn’t their drone.
“The state statute does not say we have to do this,” he said. “The Bloomington Police Department feels every part of our drone program should be made public—and it should be transparent.
“There’s no hidden agenda with the drones, DFR or controller based. If you see a drone, we want to be able to tell you why it’s being flown. We want to tell you have a really good, justifiable reason.”
