A Los Alamos-Brazil Drone Driven by the Buzz of a Red Light: A Case Study in a Chula Vista Neighborhood
Since 2018, police in a border city in California called Chula Vista have been dispatching drones to investigate thousands of 911 calls. The drones are equipped with high-resolution cameras and powerful zoom lenses, recording everything in their path. They routinely fly over back yards, public pools, schools, hospitals, mosques, and even Planned Parenthood, in the process amassing hundreds of hours of footage above residents who have nothing to do with a crime.
Posada was riding his bike down the street when he heard it—the distinct buzz of a police drone’s rotors over his head. He would later tell WIRED that a police car pulled up behind him and the officer immediately began rummaging through his pockets. For Posada, who’s known as “Focal” in the homeless encampment where he stays, this was neither the first nor the last time he would feel singled out by the cops or their drones.
It flew northwest at 392 feet above the southwestern border town, a suburb of San Diego, passing near a preschool and a church, then near a financial services center used by Chula Vista’s immigrant communities to send money to their families. Thousands of Chula Vista residents could see law enforcement looking at them over the incident that had nothing to do with them.
The machine lifted into the air with its high-resolution camera rolling. It had thermal imagery capabilities and had a zoom lens, which gave it the ability to transmit a live feed of what it captured to a officer at the scene.
Is your neighborhood the most watched by the drones? A shared story from a resident in San Mateo, N.-M. with WIRED
Some residents in these neighborhoods told WIRED they feel constantly watched. They are afraid of being spied on so they don’t use public spaces. One resident showed us his medical records and said that he was so tormented by the drones that he ended up in the ER with severe anxiety and sleep deprivation.
At their best, DFR programs provide officers with intelligence ahead of initiating a potentially deadly in-person contact. Many residents say that the drones make them feel safer. Some people feel like they are always being watched.
