SFPD now has six drones in their fleet after voters approved the department's use of drones this past March. Here's what those six drones look like, and how they will be deployed.

San Francisco voters passed a ballot measure in March that allowed the San Francisco Police Department to use drones in pursuit of suspects, or other situations where machine capabilities might be preferable to human involvement. The department apparently started using the drones in late May, and in an early August press conference, SFPD Chief Bill Scott touted the use of these new drones as a “game-changer.”

In a video that the SFPD posted right before that press conference (seen below), Scott detailed the use of these drones between May 30 and July 27. In that eight-week period, use of the drones only resulted in four arrests. That does not strike me as a whole lot of game-changing for a $35,000 drone investment that comes with an additional $40,000 a year in maintenance costs.

Now in fairness, SFPD also posted just this morning that they’d arrested three armed auto burglary suspects last Thursday using the help of these drones. (The sound effects and music in the video below seem to have been added in post-production.) And the drone fleet is still in the process of being synched-up with the automated license plate-reading (ALPR) system, which may result in greater ability to nab suspects.

The San Francisco Police Department held a Wednesday night community meeting to explain what these new drones are and how they’re being used. (There are two more of these meetings scheduled for Tuesday, September 3, at 5 pm at the Bayview Station; and Tuesday, September 24, at 5 pm at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center). The department is legally required to detail their use of any “military equipment,” as are all city police forces in California, thanks to a law passed by now-SF City Attorney David Chiu back when he was in the state Assembly.

SFPD deputy chief Raj Vaswani said Wednesday night that the drones are used to prevent the need for high-speed police chases, and to improve situational awareness. “It’s actually equipment that’s allowing us to get to a dangerous situation or scene closer, to support patrol [officers],” according to Vaswani.

The Wednesday night meeting detailed the six drones SFPD is currently using, though in SFPD technical lingo, they’re called “small unmanned aircraft systems” (sUAS). Let’s meet these six drones (or sUASes?).  

DJI Mavic Enterprise (M3E) Series

This is an outdoor-use drone that’s equipped with a 48 megapixel camera that also records 4K HDR videos. It can fly for 45 minutes on a single charge, and is also available with a high-volume loudspeaker, though it’s unclear whether SFPD has the loudspeaker-enabled version.

DJI Mavic Thermal (M3T) Series

This is a very similar model to the one described above, but comes with a thermal camera to help track where people may be in low-visibility situations.  

DJI Avata Series

A smaller model intended for indoor use, this drone comes with headset goggles the operator can use while flying the drone. It can fly for 34 minutes on a charge, or 47 minutes with additional accessories. Though again, it’s unclear whether the SFPD model has those additional accessories.  

Brinc Lemur 2

What’s unique about this drone is that it comes with a glass-smasher, and therefore can enter buildings if the operator wants it to. It’s an indoor-use unit that also has night vision, and according to the manufacturer, can also break through non-glass doors.

Autel Evo Max 4N

Nighttime use is billed as this drone’s specialty, and it also has thermal imaging to help determine where people are in poor visibility. It can fly for 42 minutes on a single charge.

DJI Matrice 30T

This drone is advertised as being ideal for adverse weather conditions, and extreme heat, or even fire situations. It is billed as having strong wind resistance,  and flies 41 minutes on a charge.

By law, these drones cannot be used for general surveillance, and the limited flight times would make them pretty useless in that regard anyway. They can only be used to monitor or pursue active suspects, and they all fly for just an hour or less before needing a recharge. KQED notes the SFPD plans to buy 22 more drones this year (at an estimated cost of $324,000), though it has not been announced whether these will be more of the same drones, or different models.

Related: March Ballot Measure Proposes Giving SF Cops Drones, More Surveillance Tools [SFist]

Image: DJI