Worcester Police Drone Policy May Have Homeless Safeguard, Chief Says

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester police initiative to purchase a drone will likely have one more public hearing in city council to review a policy for using the unmanned device — and the policy may include a carve-out for homeless residents.

At Tuesday's meeting, councilors discussed the drone program at length, and At-Large Councilor Kate Toomey said she was preparing to hold a second public hearing about it. City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. has said he may not move forward with allowing police to purchase the drone until city council holds that hearing.

Councilors have been debating the drone program since early April, although they will have no direct control over approving the purchase of the device, City Solicitor Michael Traynor has told them. One main point of contention has been the use of the drone around homeless people because a previous police memo highlighted how it could be used to search for encampments.

"[A drone] would be of assistance to the city's Quality of Life team when searching for homeless encampments. Last year, crisis intervention officers and the Quality of Life team responded to/visited or investigated more than 200 unsheltered sites," the April 5 memo to councilors said.

At a hearing in Toomey's subcommittee on April 20, homeless advocates criticized the potential use to search for homeless people.

"The [drone] program's application to searching for and tracking homeless encampments and the program's potential to invite law enforcement responses to homelessness is likely to erode community trust in government, exacerbate and prolong homelessness in Worcester by displacing and criminalizing encampment residents," National Homelessness Law Center legal director Eric Tars said at the time.

But on Tuesday, Worcester Police Chief Steven Sargent said the department would be willing to write the drone policy in a way that would protect the homeless from surveillance. Sargent had this exchange with District 3 Councilor George Russell:

"Chief, do you have any intention of using this drone for following unhoused folks in the community?" Russell asked.

"Absolutely not," Sargent said.

"Would you have any problem including that verbiage in your policy?" Russell asked.

"We would certainly put language in there that would protect against that," the chief said.

Separately, At-Large Councilor Thu Nguyen has asked Augustus to craft a "comprehensive and civil liberties focused policy regulating the use of" drones. The council approved sending that to Augustus on Tuesday in a 7 to 4 vote, with councilors Toomey, Donna Colorio, Morris Bergman and Candy Mero-Carlson voting no.

Augustus in 2021 issued an executive order on the acquisition of surveillance technology. The order says that the city manager will not approve the purchase of any surveillance equipment without a public hearing in city council. Augustus' office has said the April 20 hearing satisfied that standard, but Augustus said on Tuesday he wants the drone policy to have its own hearing.

Toomey had not as of Wednesday morning scheduled the next hearing on the drone policy, but said she would "as soon as I possibly can."

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Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect vote count on Nguyen's order over the drone policy.