Do You Want Police Drones Buzzing Around Salem?

As some of you know, North Shore Progressives has been organizing against Flock Automatic License Plate Readers in Salem. We have built a strong coalition of 17 grassroots organizations and are in the midst of negotiations with Salem City Leaders about the removal of Flock ALPRs from our city. Because these negotiations are ongoing, we are not yet publicly commenting on them.

However, North Shore Progressives has larger concerns about the increase of AI-enabled police technologies that are not currently within the scope of the coalition's work. This article focuses on one proposed program whose funding will be decided by the Salem City Council tomorrow.

This article reflects only the views of Isa Leshko and North Shore Progressives. It does not reflect the views of the Salem Flock-Off Coalition.

In the FY27 proposed budget, Salem Police Chief has included funding for a Drones as First Responder (DFR) program. The only public discussion of this program–which would be a significant increase in the use of police drones in our city–occurred during the City Council Committee on Administration and Finance meeting on May 20th. Here is a video of the meeting, which currently has a whopping 60 views.

The discussion about the DFR program begins around 1 hour and 18 minutes into the meeting. I've linked to the relevant section above. Continue watching through the end of the meeting because Councilor Merkl also asks questions about the program before the meeting wraps.

This brief discussion is the extent of public discussion before our City Council approves its funding. This feels deeply undemocratic. If you agree, please write Salem City Council and urge them to oppose funding for this program.

Below is the email that Isa sent to city leaders outlining her concerns about the lack of community dialogue and meaningful deliberation about this proposed program. Feel free to use it as a starting point for your emails to city leaders.

Salem City Council does not have line item veto power for budgets. But they can do what Lynn City Council just did on Monday: reject the overall city budget until a condition has been met.

The Mayor also has the power to withdraw the item from his proposed budget. We urge him to take this step.

Letter to City Leaders

Subject: Drones as First Responders
To: <citycouncilors@salem.com>
Cc: Dominick Pangallo <dpangallo@salem.com>, Lucas Miller <LMiller@salempd.net>, James Wellock <jwellock@salem.com>

Dear City Council,

Ahead of tomorrow’s vote on the FY27 budget, I am writing to express my concerns regarding the Drones as First Responder item in the Police budget. I am prefacing this email by saying that I am writing to you as a concerned resident and not on behalf of the Flock-Off coalition.

As you are aware, Chief Miller recently presented his FY27 budget to the Salem City Council Committee on Administration & Finance. During this discussion, he outlined his plans to implement a Drones as First Responders program in Salem.

For this program, Chief Miller plans to purchase 4 additional police drones, bringing our total to 6. His vision is for these drones to be automated by a button at the dispatcher desk. When a call comes in, the dispatcher can simply press a button and a drone will go to the gps coordinates of the call.

This is a significant increase in use of police drones in our city. To be clear, the police have been using drones in Salem for years, but in a very limited capacity. For example, during the recent wild fires, drones were used for search and rescue.

If Chief Miller implements a Drones as First Responders program, we will regularly see drones flying in our city.

Chief Miller indicated that this technology is not invasive because the drones won’t go anywhere that Police cannot go without a warrant. That is not necessarily true though. I wouldn’t invite the police officers I do not know to attend my backyard bbq, yet if this program goes into effect, a drone might be flying over my backyard.

Even if the drones are not recording footage while they are in transit—and we have yet to hear any assurances about this—their regular presence in Salem will be chilling, especially for immigrant and/or BIPOC residents and visitors to Salem.

It is astounding to me that the Mayor and Police Chief think it is acceptable to launch a program like this without first gathering community feedback and engaging with historically marginalized communities.

Most Salem residents do not watch City Council subcommittee meetings. I suspect the large majority of people are completely unaware of Chief Miller’s plans to implement a Drones as First Responder program. The approval of such a significant program without any meaningful public dialogue feels deeply undemocratic.

In addition, I do not think you have been provided with enough information to do your jobs effectively. To my knowledge, Chief Miller has not presented to you proposed usage parameters for these drones as well as any guardrails to protect the public from their abuse. Last year the Cambridge Police Department prepared an impact report for Cambridge City Council on their proposed usage of drones, and they weren’t even proposing a Drones As First Responder program.

To my knowledge, this has not happened in Salem. Drones can have a negative environmental impact, especially on wildlife. Automated drones also can have safety issues. Earlier this year, a police drone in the UK severely injured a child after it crashed into a power line. Has the city assessed whether these risks outweigh benefits provided by this program?

Before City Council passes any significant new ordinances, you typically hold meetings and invite the public and key stakeholders to speak about the impact of a proposal. We recently saw this process used for Councilor Davis’s Living Wage ordinance proposal. This kind of community dialogue and deliberation is democratic and it ultimately leads to better ordinances.

Why are you not taking a similar deliberative approach when determining whether to fund a program that will significantly change policing in Salem? Is it fair to expect you to approve this program based on Chief Miller’s brief responses to a few of your questions about the program during a subcommittee meeting?

The Policing Project of NYU Law School has developed a framework for evaluating the use of any proposed police technology before its adoption. They recommend that communities are consulted before a technology has been adopted. This framework is an incredibly useful tool that I encourage you to use as you evaluate this proposed Drones as First Responder program.

Although I appreciate that you do not have line item veto powers, you can reject the proposed budget just as Lynn City Council has done on Monday.

I urge you to reject the FY27 budget until this proposed Drones As First Responder program is removed from it. We need more time to assess and discuss the impact of this program before it is adopted. Please do not rush into adopting this program without engaging the community and assessing its costs and benefits.