Oakland Police Receive $80K In Private Donations To Launch Patrol Drone Program

By John Ramos, CBS San Francisco:

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – The Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council and California Waste Solutions has donated $80,000 to the Oakland Police Department to buy a tool that many law enforcement agencies already own. A drone, or in police parlance, an unmanned aerial vehicle.

“I spoke very clearly that we need help from the community to address crime, that the police department couldn’t do it alone, and today, our community has stepped up for us,” Chief LeRonne Armstrong at a news conference Monday afternoon.

There will be three new drones in all, one smaller one and two beefier models, that cost $40,000 each and feature a thermal camera, spotlight, and public address speaker system. The drones have no facial recognition capability, and by policy, video will only be retained for five days, unless part of a criminal investigation.

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