Minneapolis police plan to buy drones, raising concern among activists

Minneapolis police are moving forward with plans to purchase drones, raising concerns among local activists who argue the department shouldn't yet be trusted with the technology.

In the next month or two, after finalizing the details of a new policy governing their use, the Minneapolis Police Department plans to purchase the devices as part of a larger effort to "use technology to enhance our emergency response," Cmdr. Jonathon Kingsbury told council members during a Public Health and Safety Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Kingsbury told council members he believes the drones would help the department create better security plans for large events, speed up response to search and rescue missions when a vulnerable person goes missing and enhance the ability to document crime scenes and disaster scenes. Officers could also use them for surveillance, if they obtain a warrant.

Minneapolis would join dozens of other Minnesota agencies who use the technology. A report produced by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed that last year 76 law enforcement agencies used drones without a search warrant a combined 2,265 times. The Minnesota State Patrol reported the highest number of drone activations without a search warrant, saying it used them most often to collect information to help reconstruct serious or deadly crashes.

Over the course of a roughly hourlong public hearing, a small number of people encouraged the city to move forward with the drone purchases, arguing they could help amid an officer shortage. A far larger number, including many local activists, argued MPD shouldn't yet be trusted with the technology. They noted the city is negotiating a court-enforceable agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which found that MPD had discriminated against people of color and that weak oversight had allowed officers to create social media accounts to covertly surveil Black people and organizations unrelated to criminal activity.

Cynthia Brown, who lives on the city's North Side, told council members the Police Department "is broken, and it has been broken for decades."

"I am very against having drones in my neighborhood," Brown said. "We are fearful of the police, and so that's why I feel like we shouldn't have added tools for them to use against us."

Several speakers said they were members of the Safety Not Surveillance Coalition, a group of seven organizations that formed in 2020 to call for stronger regulations on surveillance and military equipment. Marika Pfefferkorn, a member of the coalition, asked city leaders to hold off on buying the drones, saying, "I believe there are more questions at hand than we have answers for."

Pfefferkorn asked for more details on the costs for buying the drones, training officers to use them, and for a more critical look at how the technology has affected Black and brown residents.

Howie Padilla, a spokesman for the department, said MPD has not yet decided how many drones it will buy because it is focused first on finalizing the policy outlining their use. Kingsbury told council members the department has roughly $30,000 to $40,000 to spend on drones, which range from about $700 to thousands of dollars each.

Kingsbury told council members state law would govern when the department can use drones and that one of roughly a half dozen high-ranking supervisors would have to sign off on their use. He said the drones wouldn't be allowed to carry lethal or less-lethal weapons, and that pilots would need to undergo a certification process.

"MPD realizes the apprehension of some of the citizens of Minneapolis as far as the technology," Kingsbury said. "It is a great responsibility for us to use it out there, and we take that very seriously."