[Music] On behalf of PPB and the Gresham Police Department, welcome. Uh we are excited to share the next big step in how PPB is using technology to improve public safety. But first, a little bit of a history lesson, if you will. You might recall that in early 2023, city council gave us the green light to start using drones. Uh these are small unmanned aircraft to help document crash scenes and crime scenes, monitor critical incidents from a safe distance, of course, provide real time information to officers on the ground and deescalate tense situations. Since the spring of 2023, drones that are flown by trained officers have helped us to do our jobs more safely, more efficiently, and often with less disruption to the public. Uh these drones are used in line with strict privacy and safety standards. Last fall, after a successful pilot program, city council unanimously approved expanding the program citywide. That meant more equipment, more training, and broader use across all precincts. everything from helping recover stolen cars to street racing interdiction. This work was conducted by utilizing drones in a select number of our patrol vehicles. This work was done carefully. It was done responsibly and always with community safety and trust in mind. This program has seen great success in Portland with over 400 successful deployments this year alone and growing community support. With that foundation in place, we're excited to take the next step. Uh deploying drones as first responders, a pilot program we're launching in collaboration with our great partners at the Gresham Police Department. As you'll hear more about, GPD has been flying drones as first responders for more than a year, and they are now inviting PPB into that space to work right alongside them. With that said, I now want to introduce uh PPB Commander Fran Shaining to share details about the pilot program. After that, we'll be hearing from Gresham Police Chief Travis Goldberg and Chief Day. And then we'll do some Q&A. Commander, >> good afternoon. Uh, my name is Fran Straining and I'm the commander of our specialized resources division with the police bureau. As Mike mentioned, we're here to discuss our drones as a first responder pilot program. I'd like to provide an overview of how the program works. Unlike traditional vehicle-based drones that require setup and travel time, these drones are pre-positioned and launch ready from the rooftop of East Precinct. When an eligible emergency call comes in within a 2 and a half mile radius, uh covering approximately 19 square miles, the drone can be launched immediately. Each drone is operated remotely by a trained Portland police pilot stationed at Gresham's drone operation center. A visual observer remains at the launch site to monitor airspace safety. Once the drone is on scene, it provides real-time video footage to officers, giving them a clearer picture of what's happening before they even arrive on scene. This capability delivers several key benefits. First, it reduces response times. Drones often arrive faster than both police officers and vehicle-based drone systems. Second, it enhances safety for officers and the community provide by providing eyes on a scene without placing personnel in immediate danger. Third, it helps us rightsize our responses, deploying the appropriate number of officers or sometimes redirecting a call to a non-p police responder like Portland Street Response. It also helps us locate suspects more quickly, often without having to set up large perimeters that disrupt neighborhoods. Most importantly, the technology can act as a deescalation tool, giving us more time and more information to decide whether an armed response is necessary. We also recognize that with new technology comes community concern particularly around privacy and civil liberties. I want to assure you that strict safeguards are in place. We worked with the Bureau of Planning Sustainability Smart City PDX to conduct privacy impact assessments at this program at each stage of its roll out. The safeguards we put in place are a number of safeguards, including the fact that drones do not record while they're in transit. Their cameras face the horizon and only begin recording if there's a reasonable belief that criminal activity is occurring or has occurred. The program is fully compliant with state law and Portland Police Bureau policies. No drone can be used to surveil private residences, yards, or any place where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy unless there's a warrant, a criminal incident, incident, or a life-threatening emergency. These drones will not be used for mass surveillance or surveillance of First Amendment events. Every flight is tracked on uh internally tracked and reviewed and every flight is externally transparent. We post the data to our dashboard where you can see it publicly. Let me also reiterate this is a pilot program. Only two drones will be in operation at East Precinct. No new drones are being purchased and the equipment is owned by Gresham and Portland's only contributing trained personnel. Due to staffing constraints, drone operations will be limited to specific time windows. Uh and all deployment data will continue to be posted publicly on our website and we welcome community feedback. If the pilot proves successful, we will explore expanding the program to other areas of the city, but only with full transparency and ongoing community engagement. At its core, this initiative complements our existing drone program that aims at saving lives, protecting our neighborhoods, and making better informed decisions in fast-moving emergency situations. Thank you for your time and your continued support as we continue to explore ways to serve uh and protect Portland. This time, I'd like to introduce Travis, Chief Goldberg, Congressional. >> Thanks. Appreciate the prompt. Uh good afternoon. I'm glad to be here with you again. Travis Goldberg, chief of police uh for the city of Gresham. Today marks a milestone for our entire region. We're here to celebrate innovation, leadership, and the power of partnership in public safety. In July of 2023, the Gresham Police Department became among the first agencies in Oregon to launch a drones as first responder program. We did this so we with a clear goal to respond faster, to respond smarter, and to respond safer for emergencies in our community. Today, we proudly stand beside our partners at the Portland Police Bureau as they launched their own drones as first responder program. This is a necessary step forward and we commend their commitment to innovation, transparency, and community engagement. What I'd like to do because I know uh Fron shared a lot of the detail information with you. I'd like to tell you about a story that happened within Gresham as to why I believe in a decade from now we will look back and wonder how we got the work we got get done without the technologies that we leverage every day. So, uh, as we launched our early on and we launched our drones first responder program, uh, one of the initial calls that our our operators went to was a robbery in progress. The idea again trying to make it safer for our entire community. As they responded to that call, it quickly resolved itself. Then the as what happens with the Jones as first responder program because it's not a patrol program, they return to the to our our home location. While in route, they were diverted to a call of a structure fire that ended up being a house a house that was fully engulfed in fire. What that that technology did for our street response, including fire department, was to provide information that individuals were in the backyard trapped with the with the inability to get out of the backyard. Our drones first responder operators were able to give that information to the street level police officers who then devised a plan, went to a neighbor, asked for a chainsaw. they were able to cut through bushes and a fence and provide an exit for people that were trapped in that fire. So, as we move forward with this partnership and this technology that I think will benefit our community, I think it's important to understand uh that technology helps us to enhance our the work we do, but also makes our community safer. Uh so, I commend the Portland Police Bureau for taking this step forward with us. We look forward to the partnerships and making our shared community safer. Uh, and now I'd like to turn it over to Chief Day for a few words. >> Thanks, Travis. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. First of all, I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to Mayor Wilson. He has been supportive of our efforts uh advancing the police bureau, moving towards the work, and uh being an agency that really strives for excellence. I also really want to thank the team um has come alongside. We have several members of the police police bureau who have taken on additional training, additional responsibility to be a part of this project. Sergeant Jensen is here, Commander Shening, and then our our partners from Gresham. And certainly I want to thank Travis and his leadership and his team, his forethought in making this happen and then their generosity in sharing the equipment with us to make this possible. Um, this partnership with them is consistent where I've wanted to go since I came back two years ago around continuing to develop and strengthen our regional relationships. And we noticed last week when we entered into the transit agreement with Trimet, that's with Multma County. Here we are standing with our um friends in Gresham. really gives me confidence and encouragement as a chief to know we're providing the highest level of service to not only the East Portlanders or the city as a whole, but also really all of Multma County in our effort um around safety. The uh economist Arthur uh author Peter Ducker once said, "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is the act with yesterday's logic." And we are no longer an organization that responds with yesterday's logic. We are an organization that's a learning organization that's moving forward on a daily basis and this is another step in that. You know, there are several of these programs around the country and I'm proud of the model that we have used. It's already been highlighted the level of transparency um the the information sharing that we provide and the successful operations both highlighted by Chief Goldberg and I'm sure that our team um could share as well. The technology uh is the future for us in policing. We are seeing this in a variety of ways and to be able to embrace this and to engage in this pilot program at this point I really see as critical. This is going to further support our goals which have been laid out since I started around transforming the dynamic between the police and the people we serve, reducing crime and the fear of crime and organizational growth and development. was made clear by council in the spring that they wanted to see a reduction in overtime. They wanted to see lower crime rates. They wanted to see an increase in hiring. The police bureau is moving in that direction in all those areas. And I'm anticipating that this program is going to further support that by the efficiencies already outlined. So, I'm just really encouraged. This is an example of a learning organization. And this is anam an example of maximizing the resources we have available to provide the highest level of safety and security to the community, recognizing the ne the necessary steps we are taking around transparency in all that we do and just really looking forward to reporting back and hopefully maybe expanding the program in the future depending on the results that we see in the coming months. Questions? Mike? >> Thanks, Chief. All right, we have some time uh for some questions. is just identify yourself and who you have the question for. We'll start with Julia. >> Julia, you mentioned the um privacy studies that were done. Could you speak a bit more to what studies were done for the title program or communities consulting? >> So, yeah, absolutely. So, I'm Sergeant Jensen, Andrew Jensen. I'm >> Spell that for >> it's a jo and Andrew is the common spelling. Uh I've been with the drone program now for just about a year. Uh I've been in aviation for a lot longer than that. Uh I wasn't present for the setup of those studies, but I do know that Smart City PDX there in the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, they basically are looking at our use of technology, the rules that we work under, and they're what they're really trying to sus out is what is the overall danger to community um privacy, what is our impact to community privacy? Um, that's a question probably for them to get the the real nuts and bolts of who they reach out to internally. Um, that's definitely going to be their wheelhouse. So, I'm sorry if that's not the perfect answer. >> Go ahead. >> Uh, Jake, KGW, I had a question about the gear itself. So, you said in as part of this pilot program, there's going to be two station on top of each Portland precinct. Um, no, >> not just one to start, but go ahead and we'll >> just just one to start on each of the precincts. >> Okay. >> No, no, no. Two on one precinct to start. >> One of two two. >> We have two drones uh that belong to Gresham that are on the roof of East Precinct and they're uh on the roof of East Precinct due to the proximity to Gresham. Uh, of course, Gresham being our our partner in this. >> Got it. Okay. And then from there, how long uh of a pilot program would you say you're looking at before potentially expanding? And would that would that come an increase in operators? Would it still be in question or are we getting too far ahead? >> I can speak to some of that. Uh we actually just talking about that earlier. Uh we're entering the Pacific Northwest uh fall and winter which does impact aviation. Uh I would like to start collecting data about our performance metrics over the next six months. I think it's going to be a very small data set because of the impacts of our weather out here. Um so potentially six months to a year to start figuring out are we having a positive impact on our call responses and our outcomes in the community. Um aside from the timeline, sorry, what was the next part of your question? um in that and this might be getting too far ahead, but uh it you said it the ones being operated from the east will still be operated from Gresham. If if it expands, is there going to need to be an expansion of operators and or would Portland need to establish its own kind of hub, say if they do end up on top of every precinct? >> I think that's a little ahead. I don't know yet. I don't think we would need more operators because the way our program is set up now, we have operators distributed through all our precincts across multiple shifts. And one of the huge advantages of this program is one or two pilots in one office can do the job of many more pilots covering much more real estate um assuming you're within the geographical area covered by your DFR program. So it actually makes that a little more efficient is the hope. >> Just one clarifying thing and then a question. Um, we've already seen this being used. I know I've been at several scenes where if someone's barricaded or we don't necessarily know how many people are in the house and they may have gotten away. Like just to clarify, you guys are already using this and we've seen these examples at port. >> Yes, we've been flying drones. Police officers in Portland have been flying drones for about two years now. And the pilot project went to a live program. Uh, Halloween last year was really the go live date. So, the way it currently works, a police officer with a drone loaded in their car will drive to the call, uh, sort of do all their pre-flight planning there at the call, launch the drone, and then provide the service. Uh, instead of driving to the call, this lets a pilot sitting in a control room, send the drone to the call with a much shorter response time, assuming you're within that geographical area covered by the drone. You don't have to drive there. >> Do you still have to get permission from the FAA when it's like short windows of time? depends on the real estate. We have a combination of controlled and uncontrolled airspace in the area and every flight we do is uh compliant with FAA rules. So that is part of the pre-flight process every time. >> And Sergeant, can you explain too just a little bit about the timing because like when we're driving to a scene, we have to drive there. We have to get the equipment out. We got a landing zone. I mean, there's there's time wasted with that, right? >> Yeah. Every deployment comes with basically I think in aviation everything has a checklist. So that checklist for a deployment out of a car starts with choosing where you're going to actually use as your launch site, which can be very complex in heavily forested areas like deep southwest Portland or even out toward the more rural areas of East Precinct. Um you don't want to take off under a power line that you can't see in the dark. Um all sorts of environmental considerations and that's just the beginning of the pilot's process, selecting where they're going to deploy from. Then they're checking airspace. Then they're checking weather. Then they're getting briefed on the call and going. A lot of that process can be done right on the computer they're sitting at. They know the weather. Uh they know that their launch site is already clear of obstacles because the drone takes off and lands from the same spot every time. It takes the workflow, which is several minutes, and takes it down to less than a minute. And if you're waiting for 911 responders to come to your house, I think those several minutes mean a lot to you. Um, my actual question and I'd love to hear this answer from G. Um, if I can say, um, what would you say to people who are worried about having these drones fly over their neighborhoods and over their homes who maybe feel a little insecure about this? >> Yeah, I that concern is genuine. It's real. You know, I don't discount that at all. um fully understand that this is new territory, you know, and certainly the history of law enforcement has uh not always demonstrated a um a credibility around the use of technology and uh a couple things that I would say to Portlanders. One, we have a demonstrated work product around this particular tool over the last year or so that we've had it up. I mean, you can go to our dashboard. Everything is very public. you can see where they're flying, what they're doing, you know, how they're being used. Um, so I think that has shown that we are being very open in that we have been clear in our communication. This week we spoke with council with chiefs of staff. You know, this isn't something that we're, you know, trying to hide. That's why we're having the press conference trying to be open about that as well. And we will continue to engage with Portlanders on this. We will continue to make ourselves available to hear their concerns. certainly, you know, complaints or things like that we will be responsive to. This is one aspect of, you know, many other aspects of policing that we're going to be leaning into. But I think it's essential that we um don't shy away from technology even if it seems a little bit uh little bit scary or a little bit uncertain because um it is a way for us to increase as we said safety, efficiencies, things like that. So, uh, but recognize those concerns exist and we welcome that feedback and we welcome an opportunity to try and mitigate those. >> Let me piggyback on that for a moment, too. I just want to make clear, I think Commander Shanning mentioned it and it'll be spelled out in the news release that'll be disseminated right after this uh news conference, but when these drones lift off the roof of East Precinct, they will be trained on the horizon because they are flying. Think about it. If the camera's pointing down, that drone could hit something. So we are we are looking at the horizon as we fly. Uh so I hope the community understands these drones are not flying looking into backyards as as it goes. They are trained on the horizon and they will get to the scene that they're dispatched to. If that makes sense. >> It does. It's just some people sorry some people just don't even like them in their neighborhood. That's what I was >> Oh yeah. I just want to make sure there >> I guess clarifying question too for Sergeant Jensen. Especially what makes this pilot program different from the drone program the police have is you're saying the operators who are going to be operating these two drones especially they are going to use the drone as the first response to a scene before patrol targets that >> that's the hope. It's the the whole point of this is to save time get get a responder on scene sooner so that we can start making better decisions faster. So, it's it's a time-saving tool. It's an evolution of what we're already using. >> Okay. And then for um Chief or Commander Channing um and I know in recent years um you know more departments have adopted this DFR program and you speak with chiefs across the country, but how have you seen this technology develop and kind of what conversations did you have to make sure like this is something we do? >> Yeah, this has been growing across the country. There's a number of agencies that are using this um you know particularly on the west coast but even you know cities like Detroit and others I was recently in Philadelphia they've been looking at it um you know so many major cities are seeing the opportunities as Sergeant Jensen outlined right to be able to be on scene quicker to be able to identify the need to better use of resources you know there's a deescalation component there there's a triage component there's distance there's time safety all of the elements that we use to evaluate the effectiveness of policing. Um, this really provides. But as mentioned earlier, you know, all of us are, you know, sensitive and aware of the fact that it is new and there are concerns around how we use technology, how we gather information, how we store it, keep it, share it, all of that. And so we are constantly in conversation, you know, with both legal counsel here, city attorney, etc. but also learning from our partners around the country to see, you know, what are some of the challenges they've faced? How have they managed that? I'm seeing this to be more common than not. I just read an article today about an agency in Colorado that's looking at it. Um, and uh I will be at a major city chiefs and international association chiefs of police conference in October and I know that it's part of the conversation there. And there's also a lot of conversation nationally about drones um and safety for community in terms of being private operators, right? When you have drones over large scale events, you know, you see more and more discussion about, you know, when they're over stadium events or open air events and, you know, trying to really understand the complexity of the program as a whole. And so this really by having the expertise of Sergeant Jensen and others, this gives us a leg up to be able to understand uh potential threats that could come from people who would use drones um you know unethically or inappropriately in our community. >> Yeah. And and the other thing is and I know this is this is different, but in this past legislative session, you know, lawmakers, some had advocated for Senate Bill 238. You you wrote in support for that. Did these conversations about this program like um kind of push off after that bill, you know, did not pass the session or was this already starting to happen? >> No, I'm give credit to Chief Goldberg. I mean, as you mentioned, he mentioned he's already been in this for over a year now. And um so early on, I don't know, but certainly a long time ago, but early on, we began to have conversations and dream about what it would be look like to provide this service to East Portland and East Multma County as a whole. I mean, I say it all the time and Travis and I have a great relationship, but what really impresses me is the way that our men and women of the agencies make it work every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You know, 162nd may be the dividing line, but they know how to work and and cross boundaries, and we know that the issues cross boundaries. So, much like us joining into the transit program last week, joining in with uh with Gresham is just a natural segue to provide a more consistent approach in policing. And I I think the region should be really proud of that. And I I would anticipate and not be surprised to see some of our partners in Washington County and Clackamus County also pick up on that. >> And because you're using Sorry, I know less. >> Yeah. Because uh because you're using Gresian's equipment. I know when you know when the city had expanded, it was initially 80,000 for the first pilot project. The council been allocated like 98,000. Does this come at no cost to the city because you're using Gresian's equipment? >> Right now it the cost is the cost of operators, right? Yeah. So right now it's just the cost of staffing, the generosity of Gresham. But as mentioned earlier, you know, if we expand and so forth, then we'll have to consider those. >> Joey, if I might just real quickly, I mean, you know, we we equally benefit from this as well. So the important part about this is, and I think the sergeant spoke well about it, is is we need to continue to assess and evaluate how the pilot uh project will go, but al also just the use of this technology. Is it working? Is it actually keeping our community safer? Is it not? and and we feel like this opportunity allows us to help Portland along but also continue to gather more information that we need to be doing as well to make sure our community is supportive of it. So that's another important piece of it. >> So a couple clarifiers and anybody can jump in. They're aggression drones operated by PP >> both. >> Okay. So when >> when calls are happening in either city I guess let's say calls in each how does that work? Does what takes priority? What does that response look like? How does that get up and started explain to you it's not 247? >> Yep. Yeah. So, this is not this is only going to be staffed as available. We have just like most police agencies staffing issues. So, when it is staffed, there will be a Portland pilot and a Gresham pilot sitting side by side right there in that control room. Uh the general workflow is going to be that Gresham pilots respond to Gresham calls and Portland pilots respond to Portland calls. However, um police work is all about triage. the Portland pilot might be on a Portland call and another Portland call may be the next call that comes in. Uh if it's appropriate, the Gresham pilot can fly to that call in Portland. And the same applies in Gresham. That's the the efficiency of the program is that we're hopefully not going to say, "Nope, that's your side of the line and I'm not going to fly to that one." >> And then you said that control room is in the East Precinct. >> No, that's in Gresham at their city hall. >> Got it. >> And then something else on the privacy note, I think I heard earlier someone said that it's not going to be used surveillance at first amendment events than protest rallies, people should expect not see >> and I can speak to that. So our SOP here in Portland is that our drones are not used for crowd management unless there is a life safety incident. So we can fly the drones to general incident to c to a crime in progress basically an exigent event involving a crime but at a crowd management event our standard is higher. There has to be a life safety threat before we launch the drone. are trying to save lives at that point. Um, and under our intergovernmental agreement with Gresham, Gresham will be following that rule in the city of Portland. So, Gresham pilots won't be flying crowd management in Portland. Um, circumventing any rules. So, we're all playing under the same rules in Portland. >> Um, who how long will video recording on these films be stored and who will have access to that? >> Um, it all go so it goes to the same repository that our bodywn camera footage goes to. It's a Axon evidence is the product. Um it's a basically a digital evidence room. Um Axon's great because it keeps track of everybody who views when, where, and how any evidence is accessed. Um and it's retained in accordance with Oregon public records laws. So if it's criminal evidence, it will be categorized um to whatever level of crime that investigation is connected to and it goes onto a deletion schedule based on that categorization. >> Question for either of the chiefs. uh what has been sort of the officer response particularly regarding safety because this is sort of change to the workflow that's a great question. I think like anything when you make a change or you bring on new technologies sometimes there's a little adverse to that uh information or or technology. Um, I think overall as we have seen great success with our deployments and again I want to reiterate, you know, Gresham's been at this for like a decade in terms of using drones for crime scene mapping or traffic crash reconstruction. Uh, and so I think the officers are getting used to it and then once they see the benefit uh about the the information coming in that makes us again, you know, smarter, faster, and safer. Uh, they they've seen they they've adopted it, you know, and and they seem to be okay with it. uh there's room to grow. This is why the pilot uh project is so important is as we continue to to gain information about the success of it and is it doing the right thing? So, uh generally they're pretty supportive of it and I turn to my theme experts that say the same, I would assume. >> Yeah. Um cop cops are very traditional. They they begrudgingly accept change, but cops love getting more information because that's the bane of any police call is you go into any circumstance with this much information about something that really is this big. Um, drones add to that information. So, generally I have found that the response from officers has been very positive. um they get to know more going in whether it's around a corner in a backyard or just into a call if if a drone was there able to put out information first. Any decision maker loves information. >> One or two more questions. >> Anyone? >> I I mean I have one. Um it's it's a little off topic. I I hate to be that person. Of course, I just clicked off the email for Chief Bob Day. Mhm. >> What will PPB do in response to the borders are doubling down on his commitment to increase ICE operations in Portland? >> Just slightly off topic. Really? >> I would interfere if I didn't think you could answer. >> Yeah. Just faith in me. Boy, that's scary. >> Hey, um, you know, we are staying the course, right? We're certainly aware of the conversation that's happening on a national level. it'd be negligent for us not to be paying attention and to listening to the comments that are being made. But, you know, Portlanders should know we're staying the course. We're abiding by state law, by our sanctuary city status. Um, I continue to be in communication with our federal partners. I continue to uh make sure that the organization is you know staying within our appropriate lanes and um yeah and then carefully watching what's transpiring around the country you know and and as I mentioned earlier to Zim I'm talking to chiefs around the country have not spoken with the chief of Chicago but had some briefings from DC spoken with chief and sheriff in LA you know just trying to understand how those communities are managing as well so we're very much aware we're having uh in conversations and not just in the police bureau, but conversation with the state police and the governor's office. I mean, everybody is is really coming together. My my emphasis is um that if we are to see an influx of federal officers, you know, there will be a period of time and it'll be difficult and it'll be challenging. We know that from prior experience in 2020. But I also want to call us to a vision that's beyond that moment because we know that'll be temporary. But we know it's not sustainable. The behavior that we're seeing is, you know, whether it's LA or DC or Chicago, whatever's next, the model is not sustainable. So, there will be a period of time and it'll be difficult. But we are going to be here afterwards. We are going to be here long term. And how do we want to continue our relationships both with one another in law enforcement, on the federal side, the local side, but also as a community? um how do we as a community want to you know be able to maintain um what is significant and important to Portland so important to Portland so um you know we're we're being careful but it doesn't change our course right now >> thanks all right thank you everyone for showing up and I just want to remind you if you can whether it's on your TV story or your web story to remind people that we have that public facing uh web page I mean I I might be biased but we have one of the best um in the country when it comes to law enforcement. We are extremely transparent and you know our UAS program is is all up there for the community to see. So we encourage them to take a look with that. Thank you for coming. Appreciate you all. I think it's like as it takes off it says I can't It's like something make it easy to Heat. [Music] Heat.