GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — At Tuesday morning's Committee of the Whole Meeting, the Grand Rapids police chief made his case to city leaders to get funding for drones.
Commissioners approved the request at a meeting later Tuesday evening.
The push was months in the making, with public discourse to help draft the policy presented Tuesday.
Members of the publichave voiced their concerns about privacy throughout the discussion of whether or not to make drones a part of the police department's toolkit.
FOX 17 took a closer look at the Kent County Sheriff's Office's (KCSO) drone unit on Tuesday to learn more about the devices.
The tiny white dots above are people caught on a drone's camera. Infrared technology was used Monday to help track teenage suspects following a car chase in Kent County.
“It’s a huge resource for us. We use it a lot. In 2022, we used it approximately 200 times. This year, we’ve already used it 185 times within the county,” Sergeant Ryan Dannenberg with the KCSO Technical Services Unit said.
KCSO has more than a dozen drones at its disposal and says the technology is useful for a variety of reasons.
From finding missing people to monitoring crowds— to searching for hidden suspects using cameras equipped with night vision— to being able to communicate real-time images from the sky to command posts during tense situations— to crash investigations— the department says drones are becoming a staple in their toolkit.
“The viewpoint you can get from 400 feet in the air is enormous in different situations," Sgt. Dannenberg said.
Grand Rapids police want to launch their own drone unit, joining a growing list of agencies in the area who also use the technology.
The police chief asked the city for a little less than $100,000 to roll out the program at Tuesday's Committee of the Whole in a presentation.
The department's policy for the usage of drones will strictly regulate how they can be used.
Every drone flight will be logged and reported to the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability to ensure no civil rights are violated during drone usage.
City leaders pointed out at Tuesday's meeting that the Grand Rapids drone unit would be the most highly overseen drone unit in the state.
The policy is known as AP 15-03.
Brandon Davis serves as the director for the office of Oversight and Public Accountability.
“Nobody else has Director Davis. Nobody else has 15-03. We have the added oversight that doesn’t exist elsewhere,” Chief Eric Winstrom said.
The sheriff's department explained to FOX 17 that their technology helps keep law enforcement officers safe on the job, and only proves to be more useful as time goes on, with the Technical Services Unit being founded in 2018.
“When we go and use the drone, we were called there to aid. For a missing person, for a suspect that’s running. So we have a reason to be there. In situations where private property may be an issue, we’re utilizing a search warrant before we go into those areas,” Dannenberg said.
Now that the commission had approved the request, the funding will be used to purchase eight drones.
Although the GRPD hasn't stated exactly when the drones would be deployed, Chief Winstrom says that it should be sometime before the year is over.
Watch Tuesday's Grand Rapids City Commission meeting below:
