The Irvine Police Department has described a recent case in which a drone helped find a resident with disabilities who left her home in the middle of the night and became lost in the dark. The department presented the episode as evidence that police drones now serve purposes well beyond fighting crime.
After the woman's family reported her missing, Irvine's Drone as First Responder (DFR) pilot began an aerial search and located her quickly. The pilot kept her in sight while coordinating with relatives and other first responders. A Mandarin-speaking Community Outreach Specialist also assisted, and the woman was safely reunited with her family.
Police agencies in Orange County are increasingly using drones for search-and-rescue missions, missing person investigations, emergency response, disaster assessment, traffic collision investigations, fire support and situational awareness during critical incidents. Many residents still tend to link the devices with finding suspects, tracking stolen vehicles or assisting with arrests.
Supporters of DFR programs say drones can reach a scene before officers do and send back real-time information that improves decisions and officer safety. In some cases, drone video lets dispatchers and responding officers see that a call does not need a large police response, which frees officers for other emergencies. Irvine began using drones several years ago and later moved to the DFR model, and city officials have promoted the tools for locating missing people and monitoring emergencies.
A growing list of Orange County cities has approved police drone or DFR programs. They include Irvine, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Fullerton, Cypress and Stanton. Contract cities served by the Orange County Sheriff's Department's new DFR program, among them Lake Forest and Laguna Hills, are also covered. Other county agencies run drone programs for law enforcement or emergency response, and adoption continues to spread.
Not everyone backs the expansion. Some elected officials and civil liberties advocates warn that the technology could lead to broader government surveillance and privacy problems. Stanton City Council member Donald Torres has questioned how drone data would be stored, shared and possibly accessed by outside agencies, and has urged safeguards for privacy and civil liberties before he would support wider use.
At the state level, Sen. Tom Umberg has raised concerns about the manufacturers of drones used by many Orange County agencies. He has sponsored legislation aimed at drones that federal officials have linked to national security concerns. Umberg has not opposed all public safety drone use, but he has called for tighter rules on procurement and technology sources.
In Santa Ana, several council members and community advocates objected to the city's DFR program, citing surveillance fears and potential data-sharing issues. The council approved the program anyway, along with later military equipment policies, in narrow 4-3 votes. Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Benjamin Vazquez and Jessie Lopez were the three members who voted against the use and purchase of drones by police.
The Irvine case also shows that the technology works alongside people. The drone found the woman fast, but officers, her family and the outreach specialist together brought the search to a safe end. For supporters, that blend of technology and human judgment is the future of public safety, with drones increasingly used to find missing children, locate vulnerable adults and help bring loved ones home.
