On Thursday, Ottawa’s Police Service Board received a briefing on the latest findings in drone technology for police operations.
According to Senior Policy Advisor Shraddha Badaravada, drone technology is moving faster than the rules, with many questions surrounding citizens’ data at top of mind.
“A drone operation today is a human-operated tool with accountable people behind every flight. It is not an autonomous robot making independent decisions,” clarified Badaravada. “However, greater autonomy is now on the technical horizon.”
Currently, drones, or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), are used under specific circumstances in police work, such as missing person searches and search and rescue, collision reconstruction and crime-scene mapping, and situational awareness at major incidents.
But Badaravada noted a qualitative shift in this regard, where the use of drones is expanding into the role of a first responder. The idea behind this would be for drones to arrive at a location ahead of officers. Pilots for such usage are not fully operational yet, but have been announced in Peel and Durham regions in Ontario and in Red Deer, Alberta.
As for how drone technology and the law interact, Badaravada said developments are highly dynamic.
“The rulebook is actually changing, the pace of this change has been extremely unusual and it’s rapid in motion,” said Badaravada, pointing to 15 legislative and regulatory developments that have emerged at federal, provincial, regulatory, and international levels over the last year and a half.
In fact, on Wednesday, the Ontario government announced an immediate ban on Chinese-made drones in highly sensitive Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) operations, as well as a prohibition on Chinese procurement.
How this announcement might impact Ottawa police operations was unknown to Paul Burnett, Deputy Chief of Police.
“I know that we use DJI as equipment,” said Burnett, when asked about the source of the Ottawa Police Service’s drone technology. “I haven’t looked into how that announcement would impact us personally.”
DJI is a Chinese technology company that manufactures commercial drones. The OPP also uses DJI for its drone equipment.
Following further questions on data storage, the Board took the briefing for information.
