I was recently surveilled by an SLCPD drone, the first of its kind I had ever seen. If you haven’t seen one before, it’s like a regular drone but they put little red and blue lights on it.
Although SLCPD claims publicly their new toy program is for “first responding,” there it was, not an emergency around and I certainly hadn’t called for its help.
It buzzed in low and watched me grill in my backyard for a good 20 seconds, before backing off. I walked to the front of the house and saw a few police vehicles driving slowly down the street — the drone went along with them.
The experience was unnerving. You can hear the same buzz in videos of drone attacks in the likes of Ukraine and Palestine. Even if our police drones can’t shoot, why would we want these same tools of war in our cities surveilling our citizens? It is a violation of privacy, private property and a disrespect to all of us who never agreed to be spied upon in our own backyards.
Jake Trimble, Salt Lake City