LOWER MERION \u2013 New police drones could soon be on the horizon in Lower Merion Township, and while some officials say it\u2019s a good idea, others are raising privacy concerns.<\/p>\n
During the township\u2019s recent budget workshop meeting, where department heads discuss budget requests, goals, and priorities with the board of commissioners, Lower Merion Police Superintendent Andy Block outlined a proposal for a new system that could launch drones automatically when certain 911 calls are reported. <\/p>\n
As part of the department\u2019s upcoming budget request, Block called this new system a Drone as a First Responder.<\/p>\n
Although Lower Merion, like many municipal police departments, has used drones for years, the new ones are different because they can launch automatically.<\/p>\n
The drone would be docked on standby at the township building and then dispatched to emergencies from the 911 calls.<\/p>\n
According to Block\u2019s explanation, when those emergency calls are received, they go out through Montgomery County\u2019s Computer-Aided Dispatch system. The CAD includes a code. When certain codes are entered, the system automatically launches the drone, and it responds to the incident location.<\/p>\n
The drone can then reach the emergency before police officers arrive. A remote drone operator could then direct responding officers based on what the drone\u2019s cameras can view. <\/p>\n
Block described this new drone system as a force multiplier because the remote operator is the only person needed to operate the drone. That frees up other officers to respond to the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s usually within 30 seconds of the call coming in; it\u2019s launched automatically,\u201d Block said.<\/p>\n
According to Block, the police department currently has five drones. Two of those drones are assigned to patrols, one to the traffic safety unit, another to the emergency response unit, and the final one is for training. <\/p>\n
The drones currently in use require the drone operator to get to the scene and set up the drone.<\/p>\n
Block said this new drone benefits responding officers by freeing them up and letting them follow the drone operator\u2019s directions on where services are needed during a critical incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to put the information that is obtained through the drone into the hands of the responders. It\u2019s not designed to replace the police officers, but it\u2019s a force multiplier for us on critical incidents,\u201d Block said.<\/p>\n
Block said the drone is useful with incidents such as crimes in progress or with missing and endangered persons. Another use would be vehicle or area searches, including searching for a vehicle after a crime has been committed.<\/p>\n
The drone can also be used to record evidence.<\/p>\n
Block cited two fairly recent incidents where the drone would have provided value. One incident was the December 2024 home invasion and murder on Meredith Road in Wynnewood.<\/p>\n
According to Block, the drone would have helped police identify the perpetrators sooner.<\/p>\n
In the more recent road rage incident on the Blue Route, a man was stabbed. The suspect fled down Route 30 and into Lower Merion.<\/p>\n
Block said that with this drone program, as soon as there were reports that the driver had entered Lower Merion, it would have launched and located the vehicle sooner.<\/p>\n
Block said the drone could also be used for fire, hazardous incidents, or any other emergency management incident.<\/p>\n
During a segment with the board of commissioners, who asked questions about the drones, Block said this drone, along with each of their existing ones, could be used for traffic enforcement. One township in Allegheny County currently uses drones for traffic enforcement.<\/p>\n
The police department would like to start with one of these first responder drones and then add more to build the system over time.<\/p>\n
The company providing the drones would work with the township to determine the best docking location.<\/p>\n
According to Block, Bensalem police currently have three of these first responder drones.<\/p>\n
Under the contract, the township would pay $75,000 each year for five years. If there are any problems with the drone, it would go back to the manufacturer for a replacement at no cost to Lower Merion. Midway through the life of the contract, the drone is automatically replaced.<\/p>\n
During a question-and-answer session with the commissioners, some seemed to like the idea, while others had concerns, mostly about privacy.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Maggie Epstein was among commissioners who raised privacy concerns over the new drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurveillance and privacy is a really big issue right now, and even mentioning that this could be used by other departments was a little bit of like an ooh, I don\u2019t know that we want mission creep like that,\u201d Epstein said. <\/p>\n
Commissioner Daniel Bernheim said they must update and review the new drone policy that would have to be established. The policy should consider issues such as when a drone flies over yards where people have an expectation of privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the drone, when it flies over your house to get to that road, is now flying over an area where there is that reasonable expectation of privacy,\u201d Bernheim said. \u201cSo the policy that needs to be put into place, or one which this board needs to review before we go further.\u201d <\/p>\n
Commissioner Louis Rossman expressed support for the new drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this drone is a great idea,\u201d Rossman said. \u201cFrom talking to people behind the scenes before you presented this to us, it just seems like the future. It seems like the way to go and to really cut the response time down for your officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Charles Gregory expressed support for the new drones, since in an emergency, getting a drone out faster could help save a life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s all said and done, if there\u2019s a life or something and someone\u2019s in danger, someone\u2019s missing or kids missing or there\u2019s a fatal, and someone\u2019s fleeing, I just think it\u2019s to me, and I don\u2019t want to offend anyone, it\u2019s just a no-brainer. And I\u2019m just saying I\u2019m backing it wholeheartedly,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Scott Zelov said that, based on the commissioners\u2019 overall comments, they are not ready to agree to the new drone system.<\/p>\n
Zelov added that he didn\u2019t believe it was the right time and that the request for the new drone should not be included in the township budget staff presented. Instead, he said commissioners should add it to the budget if they want it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 New police drones could soon be on the horizon in Lower Merion Township, and while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[182,183,185,184,186,200,139,28,729],"class_list":["post-291115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}