Latest news with #policetechnology
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Drones in Blue: Albuquerque police deploying autonomous tech to 911 calls
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) — What if police could see what's happening at a potential crime scene before they even arrive? The Albuquerque Police Department says it can now do that. A 'professional courtesy': How an officer crossed the line 'I challenge anybody to go research and find me a department that has as much or more technology than us,' Chief Harold Medina said. APD utilizes license plate readers, gunshot detection systems, helicopters, body cameras, bus dash cameras, speed cameras, and now autonomous drones. Typically, a person operating a drone must be able to see the actual drone. That's a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirement. But APD says it received a waiver from the federal agency, allowing the department to deploy drones as first responders. 'I think, as a whole, this has the potential to greatly increase our efficiency as a police department,' Medina added. Embattled McKinley County DA asks for emergency funding to keep her office running He explained that more than 50 drones will be housed in what APD is calling 'hives,' strategically located on the roofs of seven to nine buildings throughout Albuquerque. Trained operators at the Department's Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) will dispatch a drone from the closest hive to a potential crime scene. APD isn't disclosing the exact locations of the hives. However, the department allowed KRQE Investigates to get a close-up look at how the program will work. Fouad Cherair, the RTCC's Manager for Live Operations and a drone pilot, explained he can inspect the drone and assess flying conditions in under two minutes before takeoff. He can launch the drone with the click of a button, allowing it to fly autonomously, or take manual control using a mouse and keyboard. 'And while I'm doing this, I'm also maintaining visual of the airspace, along with ensuring that our GPS and connection signals look good,' he shared. The drone is equipped with a camera, and APD says responding officers will be able to view the live feed on their phones or patrol car computers. Cherair added that the pilot will also relay what they observe to officers en route. 'We're trying to take away response times from patrol officers by implementing drones first,' Cherair explained. 'So getting to the scene quick, assessing it, looking for victims, and helping with the coordination of resources.' Chief Medina added that the drone's quick deployment will also allow the department to determine whether an officer needs to respond. 'There is a suspicious car parked at the park. There's possibly a stolen car here. And we will now be able to launch our drone, saving officers for the time being to just verify that there is a car still there,' he explained. Knowing the technology could sound to some like 'Big Brother,' KRQE Investigative Reporter Ann Pierret asked the Chief when the drones will be used. 'They're not just going to be freely patrolling, looking for stuff,' he said. 'It's going to be referenced a dispatched call for service that we're already going to anyway.' And when it comes to gun crimes, Chief Medina said the drones will be linked with ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system, prompting a deployment to where shots are fired within 90 seconds, even if no 911 call is made. 'A lot of times, you know that it's going to take more than a minute and a half for an incident to fully develop — shots to be fired or a shooting or a homicide to occur. People get back to their cars, start leaving,' he explained. 'So we're hoping that it's going to be able to enable us to take people more quickly into custody in some of these cases.' The information the drone provides will also be key, Chief Medina said, to helping victims quicker. 'Officers may be staging blocks away, waiting for other resources to get there, and the offender is gone, and the victim could use medical services. And now our officers will be able to have the information,' the Chief explained. Pierret asked whether Chief Medina expects the new drone program to help prevent officer-involved shootings. 'Oh, potentially yes,' he said. 'As opposed to officers going into the backyard and looking and finding the individual, surprisingly, and not having that chance to de-escalate and negotiate with the individual. It definitely has the potential to reduce our officer-involved shootings and uses of force.' The footage recorded will be used as evidence, but APD said areas the drone passes over, such as homes and businesses, on the way to a potential scene will not be captured. The drones fly with the camera pointed straight ahead, so APD claimed it cannot encroach on someone's privacy below. 'We're going to be careful. We're going to be respectful,' Medina added. 'So I think that it is a win-win for our community, and I think our community deserves it.' This new program does not replace APD's two helicopters. The Chief said those are still needed for longer-range pursuits. The department plans to continue using its other line-of-sight drones, too, because the Chief shared they have different capabilities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
BBC News
11-07-2025
- BBC News
Bedfordshire Police cars could get facial recognition cameras
Police vehicles carrying live facial recognition cameras could be in use across a county within the next police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Bedfordshire, John Tizard, said the technology may be rolled out in July but that August was "more likely" due to ongoing national approval technology had already been tested at the Bedford River Festival by the force, which led to two people being at the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Panel on Tuesday, Tizard said: "We are still waiting for the Home Office to agree on the technology to be used across the country." He added they "have got officers trained and we have got vehicles", which could be used as part of the force's Safer Streets Summer operational decisions on the camera deployment rest with the chief constable, the PCC must give consent to its overall commissioner clarified that this does not extend to individual deployments."He won't be coming to me to say, 'We're going to deploy it in Biggleswade town centre on this day,'" he added. The PCC also addressed concerns about how the technology works and the safeguards in place."When the police use it, a photographic image is taken and matched against predetermined databases," he said."If there is no match, the image is deleted immediately, in contrast with CCTV, where the image could be kept for some time."If there is a match, the system alerts a police officer to investigate further."Councillor Marc Frost from Bedford Borough Council asked how success would be measured and what safeguards existed to prevent PCC said the force would follow national guidance and legal requirements as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service."My plan is to set up an ethical panel that will not only have oversight of this area, but the whole use of AI across the police," he said."It won't be established in time for this use of the LFR (live facial recognition), but it would have community representatives and independent members with expertise."The PCC stressed that the technology is intended to support officers, not replace them. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Crypto billionaire offers $10M gift to revolutionize policing in crime-ridden major city
A San Francisco billionaire is offering a $10 million gift to the city to create a state-of-the-art police technology hub as he pleads with officials to clean up the streets. Chris Larsen, the co-founder of cryptocurrency platform Ripple, has requested San Francisco officials to approve his huge gift to enhance the city's policing. Larsen's funds would relocate San Francisco's Real-Time Investigations Center, the police's hub for overseeing tech including license plate readers, surveillance cameras and drones, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The entrepreneur, who has a net worth over $8 billion, is hoping to move the center from the SoMa Hall of Justice to the Financial District, into a building that he owns. The potential new HQ, located at his building 315 Montgomery Street, would be sub-leased to the police for free from Ripple, which owns a $2.3 million lease on the property through December 2026 but no longer uses it. Larsen is known for his funding of public safety initiatives, and beyond the free lease he is offering $7.25 million from his policing charitable organization, the San Francisco Police Community Foundation. In an interview with the Chronicle, Larsen said the crimewave that upended San Francisco in recent years has started slowing thanks to advancements in police tech that he hopes will continue. 'I think we can clearly see what a force-multiplier this is,' he said. 'The number of tools that they have is quite small, and we know that (expanding them) will have an impact.' The streets of San Francisco became synonymous with crime, homelessness and open-air drug taking in recent years, fueled by soft-on-crime policies from officials The streets of San Francisco became synonymous with crime, homelessness and open-air drug taking in recent years, fueled by soft-on-crime policies from officials such as former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin. Boudin was recalled in 2022 as residents fumed over a lack of safety in the city, however crime in San Francisco has steadily dropped in recent times as it rebounds from the pandemic. Officials said investigative work done through the Real-Time Investigations Center helped assist over 500 arrests in 2024 and drove a 40 percent drop in auto thefts over a one-year period. Evan Sernoffsky, a spokesperson for the police department, said cops in the city are hoping Larsen's proposal is accepted, adding that his multi-million-dollar gift would 'supercharge' the unit. Commissioners within the San Francisco Police Department are set to discuss Larsen's funding proposal on Wednesday, and if it is accepted the proposal would move to the Board of Supervisors to finalize the deal. 'We cobbled together our current (Real-Time Investigations Center) with everything we basically had lying around,' Sernoffsky continued. 'Little did we know how effective it would become with just the tools at our disposal.' Larsen's funds would relocate San Francisco's Real-Time Investigations Center, the police's hub for overseeing tech including license plate readers, surveillance cameras and drones San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, the heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune, was elected last year on a platform aimed at cleaning up the drug-infested streets. He defeated London Breed in the election as voters rebelled against her lenient policing policies, and Lurie said in a statement this week that the tech investigations center has become one of the most important assets to his police department. Lurie said it supports a severely understaffed department, and 'with this new facility, the SFPD will have the tools and the technology it needs to take this work to the next level.' 'I want to thank Chris Larsen for his continued dedication to our police officers and the safety of all San Franciscans,' the mayor said. Supporters of the proposal also say that the change of venue is desperately needed, with an ordinance proposal cited by the Chronicle noting that 'in its current location, the RTIC has experienced power and internet outages, and plumbing leaks from the ceiling.' 'The RTIC is in a windowless room in a concrete structure, which limits cell phone and emergency radio transmission capabilities,' the document stated. Larsen has become known in the city for funding such public safety projects, including gifting $1 million to his police charity to help officer wellness and financing surveillance cameras across the city.
