The California City That Sends a Drone Almost Every Time Police Are Dispatched on a 911 Call

This article is part of the Policing and Technology Project, a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the relationship between law enforcement, police reform, and technology. There's a man pacing back and forth in the grocery store parking lot, evidently agitated, shouting at the sky. On the phone, a police dispatcher reassures you that someone is coming over to help--and so is a drone. Soon, you hear the telltale buzz of a drone overhead. Through its camera, someone is watching the agitated man in the parking lot, feeding information back to emergency services.