In what is to be the most extensive use of drones in a law enforcement context yet in San Bernardino County, the Rialto Police Department will be incorporating an unspecified number of the pilotless aerial vehicles into its operations over the next few months.
On November 25, the Rialto City Council approved having the city enter into a nine-year, $14.3 million augmentation contract with Axon Enterprise Inc., which is also known as TASER International, to increase an existing contract it had for supplying the police department with surveillance, video, information processing and storage, software, and artificial intelligence technology. The package the city purchased, Axon’s Officer Safety Plan 10 (OSP 10), includes making upgrades to the body-worn and in-car camera system that has long been deployed by the department, the company’s next generation of digital information storage and retrieval system, automated video analysis, license-plate readers and the Rialto Police Department’s first Drone-as-First-Responder program.
While the Drone-as-First-Responder fleet is to consist of unmanned surveillance craft provided through the company’s Axon Air division, the department already had in place three drones as part of the department’s unmanned aircraft system, which has been referred to by using the nomenclature “UAS/Drone.”
According to the department, it has in its inventory a single DJI Mavic 2 PRO remote-controlled aircraft, purchased at a cost of $1,500, and two EVO 11 PRO remote-controlled aircraft, purchased for a total cost of $3,750, which are “utilized to enhance the safety of the community and officers.” Each of those drones, equipped with video cameras, have come into use, according to the department, “when its view would assist officers or incident commanders with the following situations, which include but are not limited to 1) major collision investigations; 2) search for missing persons; 3) natural disaster management; 4) crime scene photography; 5) SWAT [special weapons and tactics] tactical or other public safety and life preservation missions; 6) in response to specific requests from local, state or federal fire authorities for fire response and/or prevention.”
In November, the city council moved to appropriate the $14.3 million to enter into the deal with Axon Enterprise Inc. under the belief that by doing so at that time it could lock in contract pricing at a lower rate than is available to other law enforcement departments presently or what will be available in the future, to ensure service continuity and reduce administrative costs.
The agreement was adopted as part of a 2025-26 budget amendment, done in the middle of the municipal fiscal year.
The Rialto Police Department has a “special” relationship with Axon. In 2012, when the company had made speculative investments in developing what was then largely untested bodyworn cameras intended for law enforcement officers, the Rialto Police Department agreed to enter into a “pilot program” in which the department’s officers were outfitted with the devices. This was done despite what at that time was widespread resistance by police unions and police officer benevolent associations which were expressing doubts or opposition to body cameras, in particular concerns about possible distraction, officer safety issues and whether footage obtained from body cameras would become accessible by members of the public for use in legal proceedings against individual officers and departments and whether expenditures on camera systems would detract from other elements within a police department budget. As a result of an impact assessment, based on a study of 54 Rialto police officers wearing body cameras during the pilot program, an 88 percent decline in civilian complaints against officers and a 59 percent reduction in use of force by the officers involved was demonstrated. This was partially responsible for the widespread acceptance of the bodyworn cameras in policing and the Axon’s crossover from a marginal company to one that was hugely profitable.
According to the Rialto Police Department, its use of Axon’s artificial intelligence-driven policing assistance suite has already enhanced the effectiveness of the department and the deal it has entered into with Axon for the equipment and services it will supply going forward will ensure the department’s officers have access to the most up-to-date tools available to shorten response times and improve crime prevention, criminal apprehension and investigation.
According to the city, the commitment of the $14.3 million to Axon now will pay dividends into the future for Rialto’s residents.
It was noted that the city’s FUSUS system, which unifies incoming data from Rialto businesses’ security systems and cameras along with the bodyworn camera videos and police reports is an Axon product.
Though few dispute that the Axon systems will be of assistance with the police department’s law enforcement efforts, there are those who have concerns that the creation of data bases into which is reposited a substantial amount of data and information with regard to innocent citizenry who are in no way involved in criminal activity gleaned from officers’ bodyworn cameras, security cameras, license plate readers, records of financial transactions, victim statements, witness statements, field interrogations, investigative reports, passers-by and bystander summaries and the like, all of which is subject to meta evaluations and being processed through artificial intelligence analogs and algorithms represents privacy and Fourth Amendment unreasonable search violations. Civil libertarians have expressed reservations about allowing a company such as Axon to not only have access to such data but evaluate it so as to render a judgment about a citizen’s potential or probable innocence, guilt or status as a suspect, from which law enforcement officers or a judge would extrapolate a conclusion as to probable cause to arrest and individual, search premises or seize “evidence,” which upon examination would prove out to not be evidence of any criminal activity.
According to the Rialto Police Department, such concerns are misplaced, since “The Rialto Police Department will utilize drones only for official law enforcement purposes and in a manner that respects the privacy of our community, pursuant to State and Federal law.” Moreover, the department’s leadership asserts that the data entered into the FUSUS system is under the control of the department and remains so unless and until higher-ups in the department consent to that data being shared with any other entities, including other police agencies, the district attorney or Axon itself.
In the Bay Area, residents have filed federal class action lawsuits against the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose alleging they are operating “Big Brother” surveillance systems that intrude on the constitutional and privacy rights of citizens. According to the suits, the cities’ license plate readers track the movements and whereabouts of everyday drivers, including ones who are engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever. The surveillance involves sweeping 4th Amendment violations, according to the suits, as the surveillance systems allows agents of the government to unlawfully monitor civilians in their comings-and-goings and then store the data, log it and retrieve it from an artificial intelligence-controlled data base at will without probable cause for doings so.
The suits, which are limited to challenging license plate readers and not video surveillance systems or drones and their video capability, alleges the surveillance activity creates a detailed, longterm record of the movements of those people or vehicles captured on the readers. According to the suits, police officers can access the databases after watching short training videos with no requirement to show probable cause and little monitoring of how the data is used.
The San Francisco Police Department has acknowledged that out-of-state agencies, including departments in Georgia and Texas, have accessed the city’s license plate data, as has the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which violates California law and the City of San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
While those suits pertain to license plate readers manufactured by Flock Safety Systems. Flock Safety Systems and Axon are both providers of automated license plate reader technology. While the basic functionality of Flock Safety Systems and Axon automated license plate readers is the same, the two systems have distinct features and capabilities. Flock Safety’s license plate reader technology is designed to capture richer vehicle detail than the Axon system.
Nevertheless, the principles upon which the lawsuits against San Francisco, Oakland and Jose are based touch on the same issues relating to constitutional rights and privacy rights violations growing out of the use of generative artificial intelligence to retrieve and provide surveillance data and write reports in the context of law enforcement operations that civil rights groups elsewhere have expressed concern about. This, potentially, leaves the City of Rialto vulnerable to similar legal challenge.
As pertains to the drones, in virtually every case, they can be hovering or flying over the scene of a crime or emergency providing video in real time to the department’s dispatch center well before a ground unit arrives, giving the department’s decision-makers information that can protect the public and enhance officer safety.
There are two other existing substantial drone programs in San Bernardino County.
One of those is the San Bernardino Police Department’s $750,000 drone first responder program, which was funded with $562,500 allocated to the City of San Bernardino from the County of San Bernardino and $187,500 provided to the city by a Citizens’ Option for Public Safety (COPS) grant.
San Bernardino’s drone first responder program utilizes unmanned aerial systems, docking stations, cloud software, and related equipment which is operated by department members who have obtained training on operating and/or maintaining the drones and Federal Aviation Administration certification who deploy the miniature video-equipped planes over an area where officers have been dispatched before the patrol cars arrive, allowing supervisors to assess threats, locate individuals in need, and marshal resources more effectively. The drones have also been used to reduce response times and supporting search and rescue operations.
The Ontario Police Department’s Real Time Information Center utilizes drones to improve police department response and increase department members’ understanding of the circumstances they are about to encounter. The department’s drone first response program,described as a “fledgling” one, is intended to enhance both officer and citizen safety through the relaying of accurate overhead visual information to officers. The real time information center’s integration of the drone program and the leveraging of technology and data analytics it provides into the center’s other assets and equipment represents, the department maintains, a significant step in modernizing policing and emergency first response in Ontario.