Solving Rising Crime In Our Cities Through Innovation

So many of our major cities have growing crime that various city leaders have declared their cities "war zones".

In any war since the dawn of civilization, enemies learn quickly how to be creative and innovative to win, and that often includes employing or developing the best technology to wage war.

One example written about in the New York Times reports that Ukraine's military has adapted to counter Russia's overwhelming military advantage with drones.

Traditional military doctrine suggests that an advancing force should have air superiority and a 3-to-1 advantage in soldiers to make steady progress against a dug-in opponent. Ukrainians have neither. They've succeeded anyway due to their ability to adopt and adapt new technologies such as drones.

Drones extend the Ukrainian infantry's limited reach. Reconnaissance drones keep soldiers safe, constantly monitoring Russian attacks and providing feedback to correct artillery targeting. During the daytime, they fly over enemy lines to identify targets; at night, they return with payloads.

Yet Ukraine has continually out-innovated the enemy. Its latest drone models can prevent jamming, operate without GPS guidance and drop guided bombs on moving targets. Ukrainian command centers use personal computers and open-source software to classify targets and execute operations.

This reality suggests drones could be just the kind of creative and innovative answer to preventing and reducing crime.

a similar approach to a war on crime study in the book: The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.

If drones watch a potential criminal, they deter dishonest behavior.

Herb Zien, a graduate of two engineering degrees from Cornell and a Master of Science in Management degree from MIT found some states have been experimenting with drones to deter or even prosecute criminal behavior.

He pointed out that in 2018 the police department in Chula Vista, California, procured a special waiver connected to the Unmanned Aerial Systems Integration Pilot Program run by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which aims to evaluate how drones can be safely deployed. That waiver allowed the department to create its Drone as a First Responder program, which allows police to fly over the city using small multirotor drones that are launched and piloted from central headquarters.

 When a 911 call comes in, the Chula Vista dispatcher decides whether to send a drone. The answer often is yes, in which case the drone launches from the department HQ and flies to the scene of the incident at an altitude of about 300 to 400 feet. It also records video through a zoom camera lens, streaming footage back to HQ and responding officers' mobile devices. The footage is stored in Chula Vista's evidence.com data repository, where detectives and police can access it, as well as the district attorney.

The Chula Vista police department runs this program ten hours daily, seven days a week, from four launch sites. These drones expand resources in several ways. For example, if only one officer is available when two calls come in—one for an armed suspect and another for shoplifting—the officer will respond to the first one, and dispatchers can send a drone to trail the suspected shoplifter. Drones fly regularly when police conduct welfare checks and respond to reports of domestic violence. Drones fly to scenes of child endangerment incidents, attempted suicides, overdoses, and scenarios described as "person down." Drones can get to the scene quickly, allowing armed police officers to use drone imagery to take stock of the situation before they arrive. 

Using drone technology to assess potentially dangerous situations keeps police officers out of harm's way before the risks are fully understood. But there are advantages even in benign scenarios such as public gatherings and festivals. Knowing they are on camera might give potential troublemakers pause. Even if people are screened for weapons as they enter festival grounds, drones could be used to scan informal entry points and surrounding parking lots. Good people living on tough streets might take comfort in knowing that their neighborhoods are under surveillance. 

Drones aren't new to police departments. More than 1,500 departments nationwide now use them, mostly for search and rescue, to document crime scenes, and to chase suspects. Until a few years ago, the FAA limited their use, which required that police departments fly drones only within operators' lines of sight. But starting in 2019, the agency began offering Beyond Visual Line of Sight waivers, opening the possibility of longer flights, remote operation, and more efficient and expansive fleets. 

Chula Vista was the first police department to be awarded such a waiver. Now roughly 225 departments have them.

Obviously, drones have been challenged in some jurisdictions, such as New York, but the courts generally uphold their use. The Right of Privacy ceases whenever an individual enters the public sphere.

 Most existing law provides the legal use of a drone to gather evidence or other information in a criminal investigation from or at a place or location where an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy without first obtaining a search warrant. This subsection does not apply to the use of a drone in a public place or to assist in an active search and rescue operation, to locate an escaped prisoner, to surveil a place or location to execute an arrest warrant, or if a law enforcement officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that the use of a drone is necessary to prevent imminent danger to an individual or to prevent imminent destruction of evidence.

Life Is Lived Forward and Understood Backward

After leaving the Peace Corps and finishing law school, Dan Steininger practiced law for a decade before joining the business world. He has led several private and public organizations, including, as detailed above, the Port of Milwaukee.

He is the Founder and President of Steininger & Associates, LLC, in Milwaukee Wisconsin and Phoenix Arizona. Dan and his team advise companies how to drive revenue and growth through the use of innovative tools and practices. 

If interested, you can call Dan at 414 430 2204 or email him here.  You can also get on his calendar here.