As a woman who allegedly stole a wallet from the bag of a patron at LA Fitness in downtown Silver Spring made her way to the nearby Ellsworth Place shopping mall earlier this year, she most likely was unaware that a drone operated by Montgomery County police officers was watching from above.
Soon after the woman left the mall after purchasing items including a suitcase, a police car approached her, without its sirens, and took her into custody, according to police.
“For all the parents who said playing video games isn’t going to get you anywhere, things are changing,” police Capt. Jason Cokinos, director of the Montgomery County Police Department special operations division, said Friday during Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) tour of the county police department’s Drone as First Responder program operation site in Rockville.
The tour capped a county visit by Moore that included a cabinet meeting and tours of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue facilities.
While the drone is proving useful in apprehending suspects, it’s also been helpful in preventing unnecessary police contact, Cokinos said.
He used the example of a call the department received from a downtown Silver Spring resident, who said a man was standing outside a storefront holding a gun. Police immediately dispatched a drone, which was able to zoom in on the man’s hand, which was holding a cell phone.
“This enables us to de-escalate. We don’t have to be coming out with guns, yelling,” Cokinos said.
Moore said he was impressed by the demonstration and the anecdotes from officers.
“I think it’s an important tool, both to support law enforcement … but also making sure that the community really knows that there’s real accountability around that work as well,” Moore said after the tour and demonstration. “We believe that you can have law enforcement that moves with appropriate intensity in full transparency and absolute integrity.”
Under the department’s six-month pilot drone program, police deploy a drone after a 911 call if the dispatcher and drone pilot believe it would be useful to use one to respond. Once the drone arrives on the scene, the police officer remotely piloting the aircraft can assess whether a threat is credible, if more emergency responders are needed, and other details that could help expedite emergency response, according to police.
The program involves two drones–one deployed in the downtown Silver Spring area and one for the downtown Wheaton area–that can be sent to crime scenes to assess the area before officers arrive. The pilot program costs $350,000 for the first six months, and was unanimously approved by the Montgomery County Council in November 2023. A second appropriation will need to be approved by the council to continue to fund the program.
According to county legislative analyst Susan Farag, the two locations were chosen by Montgomery County police based on staffing and crime trend analysis in those areas.
The program was criticized by some members of the community during public hearings last year, who voiced concerns about surveillance.
“The use of drones by law enforcement implicates significant policy interests, and can be used in a number of harmful ways, particularly against communities of color,” said Paul Holmes, who testified on behalf of the Silver Spring Justice Coalition during a public hearing in October.
The drones do not have face recognition technology and are not permitted for surveillance use, including of “First Amendment protected events” unless there is an immediate safety concern or threat, according to Earl Stoddard, director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management & Homeland Security.
To help gain familiarity with the program and learn how to adapt it for the county, police department staff traveled to Chula Vista, California, to learn about their Drone as First Responder program, which was launched in 2017. Chula Vista operates one of the first and most well-known Drone as First Responder programs.
According to Cokinos, the county is first major county to institute such a program.
“This is innovation in policing,” police Chief Marcus Jones told Moore during the tour, which included a demonstration of the drone in action.
Cokinos said the program also allows the department to work more efficiently through staffing shortages, and frees officers to respond to other calls if the drone camera helps to determine response to a particular situation is unnecessary.
It also has helped the police gather the latest information. In the case of the woman in downtown Silver Spring, a 911 operator was reporting that the woman was locked inside a store while the drone showed she was out on the street with the suitcase.
County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said during the tour that the county is looking to expand to the program, but this depends on funding availability. He said it’s a priority for him.
Jones said he supports expanding the program.
“This has been very fruitful … we’ve been able to de-escalate lots of situations. I think this is a win for us,” Jones said.