--- title: "Denver Police Department Wants Drones to Respond to 911 Calls" description: "What The Denver Police Department is planning to deploy aerial drones as 911 first responders, The Denver Post reports. Like many other police units across the country, Denver law enforcement already uses its fleet of 20 drones for certain tasks — according to the Post, this list includes missing people searches, mapping crime scenes, surveilling […]" date: "2024-05-30" modified: "2024-05-30" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/colorado-drones-911" categories: - "Drones" - "Future Society" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "drones" - "police tech" - "surveillance state" - "the digest" --- # Denver Police Department Wants Drones to Respond to 911 Calls ![The Denver Police Department is planning to deploy aerial drones as 911 first responders, The Denver Post reports. Yes, seriously.]() *\Image: Chula Vista Police Department via YouTube\* ## Dial-A-Drone The Denver Police Department is planning to deploy aerial drones as 911 first responders, [*The Denver Post* reports](). Like [other police units]() in the US, several Colorado police units use drones for certain tasks, like mapping crime scenes and trailing suspects on the run. And now, the Denver Police Department (DPD), which is launching its own drone program, has its sights set on a new use case: responding to emergency calls. The plan paints a dystopian picture of the future of policing, raising plenty of privacy and resource allotment concerns. Besides, is a tiny drone really the first thing you want to show up at the site of an accident? But according to some Colorado cops, this is the way of the future. "This really is the future of law enforcement at some point," Sergeant Jeremiah Gates, who heads the drone unit at the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, told the *Post*, "whether we like it or not." ## Flight Risk Gates, for his part, argues that drones can help cops prioritize emergency calls and make decisions about whether to send an officer to a scene. "It's saving resources," the Arapahoe County sergeant told the *Post*. "What if we get a call about someone with a gun, and the drone is able to get overhead and see it's not a gun before law enforcement ever contacts them?" Immediately, this prospect raises a slew of questions. How does a police force prioritize which calls receive drones before officers? What happens when the police make an error in a situation where a drone was sent to the scene first? DPD officials, though, claim that a drone would never be sent to a scene where an officer is "physically requested." "We would never simply replace calls-for-service response by police officers," Phil Gonshak, director of the DPD's Strategic Initiatives Bureau, told the *Post*. "The DPD would respond to any call for service where someone is physically requesting a police officer on scene." There are also serious surveillance concerns. Having camera-equipped police drones buzzing all over a city or even a state isn't a comforting picture, especially as law enforcement units continue to adopt facial recognition software. "We're worried about what it would mean if drones were really just all over the skies in Colorado," American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado staff attorney Laura Moraff told the *Post*, adding that existing under surveillance "can change the way people speak and protest." Moraff also raised the point that there's already a [well-documented]() problem "with people reporting Black people doing normal everyday things," so sending a drone to a scene for every and any 911 call could add a new and pervasive layer of surveillance to what are already overpoliced communities. "It can really affect behavior on a massive scale," Moraff continued, "if we are just looking up and seeing drones all over the place, knowing that police are watching us." Next, the department is going to replace 911 operators with buggy customer service bots that make you use your keypad to relay which kind of crime or emergency you're currently experiencing. What could possibly go wrong? *Updated to correctly distinguish between the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office and the Denver Police Department.* **More on surveillance:** [*Students Horrified When Error Message Appears on Vending Machine, Revealing Something Dark*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()