The Anchorage Police Department presented a policy to deploy rooftop-mounted "first-responder" drones that would provide live aerial feeds to officers on certain high-risk calls and support the department's real-time crime center. The chief said the department currently has a small drone program and an initial contract for three rooftop drones; he also said a fully functional citywide capability would require far more units (the chief cited a notional figure of roughly 23 to 26 drones to cover the municipality) (SEG 1371'SEG 1394). "3 right now we got on this contract," the chief said (SEG 1370).

Deployment priorities would be safety-first: shots-fired, missing/endangered persons, search-and-rescue, large disturbances and situations where an aerial view could reduce risk to officers and the public. The chief said drones will fly a profile that tends to remain in public airspace where possible and that aircraft-detection and deconfliction technology is part of the platform; he told the Assembly the drones can adjust altitude and avoid manned aircraft (SEG 1120'SEG 1131, SEG 1191'SEG 1200).

On data and recording, the chief said the camera is live while drones transit but that the system is designed so transit flights are "not recording" in the evidentiary sense; footage associated with a criminal investigation would be retained consistent with existing evidence-retention policies (body-worn and other camera policies), while non-evidentiary drone footage would have a 14-day retention default (SEG 992'SEG 1000, SEG 1078'SEG 1092). "It's on. It's not recording," the chief stated about the drone camera during transit (SEG 994'SEG 997).

Staffing and oversight: the department said the real-time crime center currently operates with one sworn officer and one professional staff member; the department is creating three professional positions and plans to expand to a minimum staffing model of four sworn and four professional staff for full operations (SEG 1568'SEG 1576, SEG 1569'SEG 1573). The department proposed a public-facing "dashboard" with metadata (date, time, type of call, duration, area overlay).

Assembly members raised airspace and safety questions, asked how personal-use drones would be distinguished, queried whether license-plate-recognition data would be captured and retained, and pressed about the triggers that would authorize drone deployment. The chief said policies would require legal-review gates for data-sharing and that deployments over protests or First Amendment activity would be limited to verified, credible threats and would include outreach to organizers where practicable (SEG 1248'SEG 1263, SEG 1348'SEG 1363).

What's next: the department will provide the full draft policy (posted on the public policy website), continue quarterly review and public dashboards, and return with site-selection details and possible future budget requests for expanded drone coverage; the transcript records discussion and requests for follow-up but no assembly vote.