Fairfax Police Department began flying UAS (Unmanned Aerial System), or drone missions in 2019, and by 2020, it had 30 trained drone pilots.
FCPD flies drones:
with a search warrant; to serve a felony arrest warrant at a wanted subject's primary residence; when in pursuit of someone actively sought for an arrest; when there's an amber, silver or blue alert; to investigate a reportable traffic crash; in a location where they have consent to be; for training pilots and evaluating equipment; and to "alleviate an immediate danger to any person," such as an active shooter.
The Fairfax County Police Department says it is revolutionizing policing with its Unmanned Aircraft System. While it has been using drones for small jobs since 2019, “in the past year, FCPD’s drone program has expanded to assist the department’s helicopter program with a lot more detailed work,” states the county’s website. On May 21, 2019, the Board of Supervisors approved the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Manual,
When asked if the 2019 UAS manual is the "official policy" and if it has been updated, Fairfax Police Department media responded via email on Sept. 23: “The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) policy was drafted by the County, see the link for additional details of the policies guiding drone usage. It is the policy that our department follows.” https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/uas/unmanned-aircraft-systems
In response to a question about civilian oversight, Fairfax Police Department media stated, “Regarding public input into our policies, FCPD has historically sought community input since 2015 on several core General Orders, to include Human Relations (002), Release of Information (402), Vehicle Pursuits (504), Vehicle Stopping Techniques (505), Body-Worn Cameras and In-Car Video (509), Use of Force (540), Arrest Procedures (601), and Immigration Status, Citizenship, and National Origin (604).”
According to Fairfax County, the most recent public comment on the UAS Manual is a series of public meetings held in 2019 with written comments on the draft program previously submitted by Feb. 8, 2019. They are part of the official public record. The public presentation occurred in January and February of 2019, with the Presentation to the Public Safety Committee on March 12, 2019.
On Dec. 2, 2022, the Office of Aviation Services of the U.S. Department of the Interior revised its Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations and procurement policy. On Jan. 1, 2023, those revisions went into effect. The policy is based on the Department's completion of a comprehensive review of the UAS program, as required by Secretary's Order (SO) 3379. It addresses the Department's critical need for UAS capabilities while ensuring that necessary security measures and related mitigations are met per Executive Order (EO) 13981.
Fairfax Police Department began flying UAS (Unmanned Aerial System), or drone missions in 2019, and by 2020, it had 30 trained drone pilots. According to the department, they fly drones under certain conditions, such as with a search warrant, to serve a felony arrest warrant at a wanted subject's primary residence, when in pursuit of someone actively sought for an arrest, when there's an amber, senior, or blue alert; to investigate a reportable traffic crash; in a location where they have consent to be; for training pilots and evaluating equipment; and to "alleviate an immediate danger to any person," such as an active shooter.
According to Captain Mike Shamblin of the Fairfax County Police Department, the department had 12 drones by mid-2021: six for the SWAT team, one for the Technical Investigation Unit, one for Fugitive & Apprehension, two for the Crime Scene Unit, and two for Helicopter Search & Rescue. There are logs of drone activity and lists of what the drones can and cannot do on the county's website.
The use of drones has raised concerns. “There is no national framework governing their use and how police make use of the data collected by the thousands of drones being flown by thousands of the machines across the United States,” according to the Brookings Institute. “In the absence of a federal framework for governing the technology, cities, [counties], and states have written a patchwork of rules and regulations for police drone use that, taken together, show what a more transparent and just set of laws governing police aerial surveillance might look like.”
Brookings cites the George Floyd protests as an example, calling them the largest protests in the US since the 60s. Law enforcement across the country gathered personal data on peaceful protesters by means of drones, as well as social media, body cameras and facial recognition.
While Virginia and some other states require a warrant for many law enforcement use of drones, it also exempts police from the warrant requirements if they’re using drones for non-law enforcement purposes, like taking photographs of accident scenes, for disaster response and for assessing traffic levels, Brookings says.