Vermont police are using drones more than ever. Here's what that means

In September, an airplane crashed in rural Addison County, killing four people.

Middlebury police were first on the scene, followed by the Addison County Sheriff’s Department and Vermont State Police. Officers found the crash site using a thermal drone.

Just one year ago, that would not have been the case.

Middlebury’s drone program only launched this year, and the town’s select board voted unanimously to authorize the purchase of that thermal drone in June.

Middlebury is no outlier. Burlington and Milton police have their own drones. And since VSP launched its drone program in 2019, the use of unmanned aircraft in policing has increased dramatically in Vermont, just as it has around the U.S. at large.

Catherine Crump — a University of California, Berkeley clinical law professor who specializes in privacy and surveillance — says that’s because drone technology has become more sophisticated in recent years, and the public’s concern over crime has risen.

“Concern, by the way, even though crime rates nationally are going down. But nonetheless, drones and other surveillance technology generally are thought to be a potential answer to this,” Crump said. “So yeah, it’s definitely part of a national trend.”

So, how are Vermont police actually using drones?

In 2019, VSP reported using them just once, to check out properties former Vice President Mike Pence stayed at during a vacation in Hubbardton. As the drone program has grown, uses more often reflect everyday police work.

“We started I think, with around 13 drone operators, and probably about 11 aircraft. And our main focus then was crash reconstruction,” said VSP Sgt. Matthew Sweitzer, who helped create VSP’s drone program. “So our serious injury and fatal crashes on the highway, and then search-and-rescue missions.”

Fast forward to last year, when VSP reported using drones 159 times, with more than three-quarters of those uses concerning criminal investigations (though that data is incomplete). The agency now has 21 operators spread across Vermont.

“We’re constantly testing and evaluating or researching different options just to stay relevant in our mission space and stay up to date on the equipment and the technology,” Sweitzer said.

Drones come in myriad shapes and sizes and accordingly have several uses. Beyond crash analysis and search and rescue, drones photograph crime scenes and ongoing fires. In active shooter situations, they can help assess safety risks for officers, and drones equipped with two-way communication have been used in crisis negotiation. They’re also capable of dropping things like medical supplies or heated blankets.

Right now, when municipalities need to borrow a drone, they call VSP. But Middlebury Officer Ethan Jones said that the approval process is opaque — and sometimes local police just have to wait.

“We just have dispatch kind of work on coordinating that with VSP. And sometime later, we’re told whether or not there’s a resource,” he said.

Sharing helps towns use the latest drone technology without having to buy it outright, but that “sometime later” can be hours. And that’s not ideal when each second is critical.

Take, for example, this spring, when an older Middlebury resident with late-stage dementia went out for his regular walk. When he was gone longer than usual, staff at the care facility where he lives called the police. Jones and a host of other law enforcement and volunteers took action.

Jones pinged the man’s cellphone, which led him to an open field not far from the care facility. Police dogs ultimately picked up the man’s scent just as he stood upright in the field.

Middlebury police actually had a drone in the sky — just not the advanced thermal model the department eventually bought this summer.

“He was right below my non-thermal drone the entire time,” Jones said. “So that was kind of a lesson learned for us. Like, had we had a thermal drone, what resources could we have saved by not having to call out for other people?”

That line of reasoning spoke to Middlebury Select Board member Dan Brown as he mulled over whether his police department should have its own thermal drone.

“I think the drone is the best force multiplier that you could get out there,” he said. “It certainly reduces man hours, or it adds to man hours by being a machine. It has the capabilities of doing things officers can’t.”

And that doesn’t just apply to policing. Earlier this year, Middlebury cops used their drone in support of the town’s fire department. And public works wants to use it for damage assessments.

If community members in Middlebury were worried about the town buying a thermal drone, it wasn’t reflected in the public testimony of select board minutes when the idea was considered.

“I have heard no pushback from any constituents, and we were concerned about that,” Brown said.

Still, not everyone is enthused about drones becoming more ubiquitous.

Lia Ernst, legal director at the ACLU of Vermont, agrees there are benefits to drone use.

“For example, for search and rescue, it both increases the likelihood that the individual will be found, and it poses less of a risk to the safety of the people doing the searching.” she said. “You know, that’s a win-win.”

But she said that comes with a big caveat.

“Again, all of this is assuming that the drone is being used consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Bill. You know, those strike us as beneficial to the public at large and minimizing risks for individuals otherwise tasked with assessing these sorts of scenes,” Ernst said.

The privacy bill is a 2016 state law that puts guardrails around law enforcement’s use of drones.

“What the Legislature was seeking to do here was allow law enforcement to use this technology in ways that further public safety. You know, to check out flood damage, to do a search-and-rescue operation. But to really limit when and how law enforcement can use it for investigation of crime,” Ernst said.

The privacy law states drones cannot be equipped with weapons. Police must have warrants to use drones in criminal investigations. Under most circumstances, facial recognition technology and biometric data collection are prohibited. And police aren’t allowed to use drones to collect data on protesters.

Ernst said those restrictions on drones matter, given their capabilities and reach.

“If you’re on the fourth floor of a building with your window open enjoying the breeze, you would not think that there would be a listening device right outside your window. So drones … enhance the degree to which these concerns really come to the fore because of the fact that they can be basically anywhere — and oftentimes, entirely undetected,” Ernst said.

Vermont law also requires police and sheriff’s departments to report each time they use a drone, and why.

VSP compiles that data for an annual report that goes to the Legislature. But Sweitzer, an officer in charge of the state’s drone program, said there aren’t safeguards in place to ensure local police flag every incident of drone use.
 
“I think there’s even like a little disclaimer on the report that states that, ‘This is only the information that the Department of Public Safety has received,’” he said.

For example, in 2020, VSP did not file its drone report. When asked why, a VSP spokesperson said “due to circumstances including the response to the ongoing pandemic, no UAS report was completed during 2020.”

Lia Ernst with the ACLU said that’s an issue.

“That, to me, raises real questions about the efficacy of legislative oversight, and the degree to which the legislators who order these reports actually follow up with them and do anything with them,” she said.

Based on early reporting, this year law enforcement is on track to meet, and potentially surpass, drone use from last year. And as more departments secure their own devices, drone usage is only expected to rise.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.