Syracuse committee asks police to add privacy safeguards to drone-as-first-responder pilot

On Oct. 25, 2025, the Syracuse City Council Public Safety Committee asked Syracuse Police leadership to revise its Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) pilot policy to include additional privacy and oversight safeguards and return the updated policy to the committee within two weeks.

Committee members said they support the department’s goal of faster situational awareness but want clearer limits on when drones will record, who can authorize flights, how long recordings are retained and how the public can review or contest footage. The police chief and department staff agreed to add changes to the existing policy and to publish a public dashboard showing flight frequency, patterns and call types before the pilot launches.

Police officials told the committee the department has already used drones in prior non-DFR operations — including tracking a man with a rifle to a mall, monitoring a brush fire in the Skunk City area and helping firefighters direct water at the Maria Regina fire — and said those uses saved time and reduced risk. The chief said the DFR pilot’s stated purposes are to improve response to calls for service, enhance efficient use of resources, provide real-time situational awareness and help de-escalate incidents.

Officials proposed several written changes to the department’s UAS policy (referred to in the discussion by section numbers 606.6 and 606.7). Among the promised revisions: require supervisor approval (at the level of lieutenant or captain, or a sergeant who holds an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate) before launching a drone as a first responder; add explicit language…