What's up, South End?
This week, we're doing things a little differently. I've been asking for submissions to "Mike's Mailbag," and I received an interesting inquiry that took some reporting to answer.
Here's the question:
Mike,
What do you think about drones for the police? After a Seattle family member had a gun battle erupt next to their house and it seemed the perpetrators were not going to be caught and I learned that other cities nearby such as Renton are allowing their police to use drones for 911 calls, I got to wondering why not SPD?
—Susan, Mount Baker resident
Admittedly, I wasn't aware of the Renton Police Department's drone program. The first thing I needed to do was reach out to them for a little background. Here's what I learned from the desk of Officer Michael Thompson, the drone project manager:
"The Renton Police Department started their drone program in 2015 as a result of new technology becoming available. It was introduced to the department as a way to capture more data, faster for serious collisions. At the time the traditional way of capturing data was using survey equipment and would keep roads closed for hours. The introduction of drone technology allowed for more points of data to be collected in about 30min. The department had to no longer rely on a ladder truck from the fire department to capture photos of the scene from an aerial perspective. This allowed for roads to be opened faster and more information to be collected to assist in the investigation."
Since then, the drone program has expanded, and according to Thompson, drones "are currently used in most divisions within the department." This includes patrol, where they're used the most. Pilots use drones to search for missing persons and suspects. They take photos and video of crime scenes, and SWAT uses them to sweep buildings.
Here's my simple answer for Susan: No, I don't think Seattle should adopt a drone program. Everything mentioned above sounds great, and as long as Renton continues the program as is — which, to my knowledge, is the current plan — then drones are a helpful tool. My fear is the future. Renton has already expanded the initial plan. What if it expands further? What if these drones become armed? Have you read about the way Flock cameras are being abused? Just because we can use a new tool doesn't always mean we should.
But I'm no expert — so I found someone who is. Scott Mourtgos is an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina. He completed the world's first study to gauge the effectiveness of drones as first responders.
Full disclosure: Mourtgos is a former cop, but he's currently an academic and isn't paid by any drone-manufacturing companies or police departments. Also, the research was done in 2025, so not all data has been compiled, and one research paper has not yet been published.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MD: You're credited as the first person in the world to do a randomized study on drones as first responders. What does that mean, and what did you find?
SM: As far as we know, me and my research group are the first to run a randomized control trial on the outcomes of a police department using drones in a first responder program approach. You will see a lot from vendors, companies that sell drones, about success. We did an independent study.
A randomized control trial is just running a field experiment in its simplest form, using two different police departments. In one, calls were randomized on whether they received a drone response or not. In the other, the day of the week was randomized on whether drones were available to respond to calls or not.
MD: Got it. What did you learn?
SM: What we found, essentially across both police police departments, is that you do see a reduction in response times overall in the areas where drones are being used. We also see evidence of a workload reduction trickle-down effect, where even the calls that don't have a drone respond but are in the drone-response area and only receive a patrol officer, you see those response times reduce as well.
MD: Can drones prevent crime or contribute to public safety?
SM: There certainly is anecdotal evidence — not only at the police departments we worked with, but at other police departments — where drones overhead help everybody be more safe. Like, if you have police officers responding to an armed individual, rather than just having officers walk in blind and potentially have some sort of armed conflict, if you have a drone overhead and know exactly where that individual is and exactly what they're doing, better decisions can be made based on that information.
But I can't speak to specific outcomes just yet. We're still working on that.
MD: Based on what you've seen, would you say these drone programs are worth the cost?
SM: I can't answer that. And frankly, regardless of how much research I ever conducted on this, I would never put myself in a position where I'm telling a police department this is worth it or not worth it. Because there are so many considerations that go into whether something is worth it or not. Let's say we get to a place where we can say the specific public safety benefit to these programs — that doesn't negate possible concerns or downsides of implementing the same programs. Some people have very strong concerns about surveillance and privacy when it comes to the use of drones. I can't say how to weigh that.
MD: Great point. Reminds me of Flock cameras. Finding suspects is great, but they've also been abused. Big questions: Are all of these drones controlled by humans? Is it legal to arm these drones?
SM: Let me preface this with: I am not an attorney. But, I am not aware of any police department that has any kind of autonomous drone program. Every drone program I am aware of, and I believe the law requires this, there has to be a human operator. Until recently, they had to be within line of sight of a human. As of recently, police departments can get line of sight waivers from the FAA, where if you meet certain requirements, you no longer actually have to have human eyes on it, as far as being able to physically see it, but you're still required to have a human pilot there. I don't think it's legal to have just autonomous drones flying around doing whatever they want.
Again, caveat, I'm not a lawyer. But my understanding is that the federal law does not allow dangerous weapons to be attached to drones. I haven't seen or heard or been aware of any police departments that have even attempted to do that, let alone done that. But there is some nuance with the way that dangerous weapons are defined in federal code. Technically you could, in theory, attach a less lethal weapon to it, say a taser or some sort of pepper spray irritant or something like that. I am not aware of that happening, and a lot of jurisdictions have passed laws that ban even less than lethal weapons from being used on drones.
MD: Has this research, or any you're aware of, looked into racial disparities in drone use or the specific communities where drones are or are not used?
SM: Not that I'm aware of. We have so little research at all on drones in policing, but I'm not aware of any that addresses those questions.
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Mike Davis is the newsletter editor and Voices editor at the South Seattle Emerald. Born and raised in Seattle's South End, Mike is a longtime journalist who's covered everything from arts and culture to sports to politics.
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