WILMINGTON — The current Covid-19 pandemic has created numerous opportunities for federal and state funding for not only businesses and citizens, but also governments.
While most of the funding is provided with the intent of providing resources during the pandemic, the Wilmington Police Department is taking the opportunity to increase its ‘eye in the sky’ with eight new drones.
The City of Wilmington City Council is poised to vote on a motion that, on the surface, seems to be business as usual.
It is tucked away on the City Council’s consent agenda and is simply listed as a ‘Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Apply for a Coronavirus Supplemental Funding Solicitation in the Amount of $234,749.’
The consent agenda is where items that are typically considered routine are placed. The City Council generally votes on all of the items at one time without discussing any of the items in depth. More often than not the consent items are passed with little more effort than it takes to push a button to vote ‘yes.’
But the addition of eight new drones for the Wilmington Police Department seems to be anything but routine. Not only is it on the consent agenda where it will likely not get a second look, but the fact that the city is applying for Covid-19 relief funds to pay for drones is also questionable.
According to the request, “Grant funding is available to assist law enforcement agencies with dealing with Pandemic related emergency events, now and in the future. The City of Wilmington Police Department will use the grant funds to purchase equipment and supplies including, but not limited to: an ultraviolet light sterilization chamber, intermediate level first aid kits, and eight drones.”
First aid kits and a UV sterilization chamber both seem to be, Covid-19 related, but what about the drones?
Well, according to the request, the drones will allow officers to ‘preserve personal protective equipment’ (PPE).
“The drones will increase the ability to observe situations in real-time without the need for officers to engage directly and thereby will preserve existing PPE supplies,” according to the request.
It is unclear how much PPE is being used by police or if there is even a shortage of PPE at the Wilmington Police Department to warrant eight drones. Also, drones are typically used in surveillance situations in order to observe from afar, without being noticed. It is unclear how a drone conducting covert surveillance will prevent officers from using existing PPE supplies if the point it to remain unseen and simply to observe.
Most police work will still require officers to have contact with other people. Speeding tickets, criminal investigations, and other day-to-day police work can not be conducted by a drone.
While drones can be a useful tool for observation, their use by police as a mass surveillance gathering tool, that does not take into account anyone’s privacy has been an issue. It is not clear if the police will need warrants to use the drones to observe specific parties or if they would have carte blanche access to the drones to simply seek out criminal behavior and hope they see something.
City Council will vote on the request today at 6:30 p.m. and public comments are welcome. The meeting will be held at Wilmington Convention Center, 10 Convention Center Drive (in downtown Wilmington on the north waterfront).
"8" - Google News
May 19, 2020 at 10:30PM
https://ift.tt/2WK3dYZ
Wilmington police want 8 new drones, plan to use federal Covid-19 funds to get them - Port City Daily
"8" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2z1PBPz
https://ift.tt/3c1rzCJ
No comments:
Post a Comment