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Sterling Heights council approves five-year Drone-as-First-Responder contract with privacy safeguards promised
Summary
Sterling Heights council voted to approve a five-year contract to deploy a Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) system, saying the $678,822.40 purchase will be covered by previously budgeted funds and public-safety forfeiture proceeds. Council and staff emphasized privacy controls, a public transparency dashboard and a department privacy order to be finalized before deployment.
Sterling Heights' City Council approved a five-year contract on a voice vote to buy and operate a Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) program from Axon Enterprise and to contract electrical work for docking stations, council announced.
Deputy Chief Ken Pappas presented the program as a rapid-launch tool that will support police, fire and public works by delivering on-scene aerial situational awareness more quickly than the department's existing operator-dispatch model. Pappas said drones will launch from fixed docking stations, remain horizon-facing while en route and begin recording only once on scene; he said the drones will not use facial recognition or biometrics.
Pappas said the first-year cost of the program was presented to council as $149,264 and that the purchase and multi-year costs were budgeted in the 2025'26 budget and will be paid from public-safety forfeiture funds. Council later moved to accept Axon's quote for a total of $678,822.40 over five years through Sourcewell cooperative purchasing, and to accept a separate $13,500 quote from LaBelle Electric Contractors for electrical installation of docking stations; the motions were approved by council.
Vendor and staff described technical and procedural safeguards. Alex Lohman, a Skydio solutions engineer who spoke during the discussion, said the platform keeps the camera pitched to the horizon until an augmented-reality waypoint triggers a change in camera pitch at a scene, and that recording begins on scene. Lohman said live video streams and recorded files are encrypted in transit; once recorded evidence is uploaded it is managed on the department's evidentiary platform (evidence.com) and becomes departmental data.
Council members emphasized the need for an explicit department policy before the system goes live. Councilmember Radke said he pulled the item from consent to confirm a privacy-protecting general order would be in place; Deputy Chief Pappas said he had drafted that general order, had exchanged it with the chief and expected to make a near-final version available by 9 a.m. the next day. Pappas also said the department's non-investigative video-retention standard was 60 days; evidence for serious felonies will be retained per legal requirements, he said.
Council members asked operational questions about triggers, staffing and frequency of flights. Pappas said certified, trained officers will staff the system and that waivers allow the drones to operate beyond visual line of sight. He cited a comparable agency that conducted hundreds of DFR flights over an 11-week period as an example of likely utilization.
The council approved the two contract actions on a verbal aye vote; no individual recorded roll-call vote was provided on the motion. Mayor Taylor announced the motion carried. The city manager and police department said they will publish the department general order, the transparency dashboard and other implementation details to the public prior to deployment.
