[OccupyCU] Why Does Sheriff of Small Midwestern College Town Need a Drone?

Fri Nov 9 19:22:50 UTC 2012

A few rounds from a 30.06 would provide most drones some useful ventilation.

On 11/10/12 1:19, Brian Dolinar wrote:
> See my latest article 
> <http://ucimc.org/content/why-does-sheriff-small-midwestern-college-town-need-drone> 
> about the sheriff's purchase of a drone. BD
>
>
> Why Does Sheriff of Small Midwestern College Town Need a Drone?
>
> By Brian Dolinar
>
> Most have heard about the unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones,” that 
> the U.S. government has been flying over Pakistan and Afghanistan 
> dropping bombs aimed at suspected militants and all too often killing 
> innocent civilians. Increasingly, smaller versions of these planes are 
> being purchased by police agencies, border control, and homeland 
> security to use domestically. Rather than carrying weapons, they are 
> outfitted with cameras allowing them to become an all-seeing eye in 
> the sky.
>
> In April 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a 
> list of 63 
> <http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/24/faa-releases-list-of-registered-domestic-drone-operators> 
> launch sites approved to fly drones over U.S. airspace, although since 
> 2006 they have issued between 700-750 operating licenses. Not included 
> on the list was Champaign County, home to the University of Illinois 
> at Urbana-Champaign, where the Sheriff has owned a drone since 2008. A 
> Freedom of Information Act request turned up dozens of documents 
> detailing why the Sheriff of a small Midwestern college town would 
> want one of these mini-drones.
>
> Lately, Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh has frequently been in the 
> news. In 2011, it was discovered that Walsh was participating in 
> “Secure Communities,” 
> <http://www.ucimc.org/content/%E2%80%9Csecure-communities%E2%80%9D-program-adopted-sheriff-terrorizing-local-immigrant-community> 
> a controversial program to detain undocumented residents for 48 hours 
> while a background check was performed by Homeland Security. The 
> majority of those caught in this dragnet were found to be held for 
> low-level offenses, not the hardened criminals said to be the focus of 
> the program. (In March 2012, due to public pressure, the Sheriff ended 
> <http://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/content/champaign-county-detaches-immigration-enforcement-activity> 
> his participation in Secure Communities). The Sheriff has also been 
> stumping for the construction of an expanded jail expected to cost 
> taxpayers upwards of $20 million. The discovery of his purchase of a 
> drone, without approval of the Champaign County Board, is further 
> evidence of his aggressive policing.
>
> *Good Men Doing Something *
>
> The Sheriff’s initial interest in a drone came from a 
> search-and-rescue mission in 2007 to locate Naomi Arnette, a woman 
> whose remains were discovered in a small town outside of Champaign. 
> Gene Robinson, of the Texas-based RP Flight Systems 
> <http://www.rpflightsystems.com/MainPage.html> (later renamed RP 
> Search Services <http://rpsearchservices.org/>), was called in to fly 
> his drone as part of a search team. Impressed by the high-tech gadget, 
> the Sheriff wanted one of his own. It was the end of the fiscal year 
> and there was about $3,000 in drug forfeiture money that had to be 
> spent. Lieut. Shane Cook contacted Robinson, who also sold his 
> manufactured drones. Robinson replied promptly with a quote and some 
> promotional material.
>
> Before buying the drone, Sheriff Walsh made sure he would not have to 
> clear it with the Champaign County Board. He first ran the idea by 
> county attorney Susan McGrath. McGrath said that the previous month an 
> amendment was added to the purchasing policy stating that if an item 
> cost $5,000-$20,000 and the company had offered the same contract to 
> another unit of government, it did not require approval from the 
> board. In an email dated March 11, 2008, Walsh said, “The price is a 
> little under $10,000. I do not know about any other contracts. I’ll 
> try to find out.”
>
> The Sheriff asked Lieut. Cook to see if bids for the drone had gone 
> out to other government agencies. Gene Robinson said that he was 
> “making some inroads” with Border Patrol and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism 
> Task Force. There had also been interest on the West Coast for fire 
> support, and from the Department of Homeland Security. According to 
> Robinson, they had given several demonstrations and met with “more 
> agencies out there than I can remember.” Cook followed up to ask if 
> they had sold a drone to anyone. If so, their attorney had advised 
> that they could “pony” on the contract “and not have [a] bid from 
> other companies.” Robinson said he had sold two drones to emergency 
> teams in his area of central Texas. After finding out that no other 
> company sold a comparable “tactical” drone, the Sheriff was able to 
> offer Robinson a no-bid contract.
>
> According to a purchase order, on March 19, 2008, Walsh bought a 
> “Spectra” <http://www.rpflightsystems.com/SpectraAP.html> drone. The 
> plane has a wing span of 48 inches and weighs up to six pounds with 
> equipment. On the belly of the plane is a camera system capable of 
> providing three-dimensional live video streaming. [See video 
> <http://texasequusearch.org/2011/06/video-cnns-mike-brooks-interview-of-gene-robinson-of-rp-flight-systems-drone-demonstration/> 
> of Gene Robinson flying drone.]
>
> * *
>
> In an email dated May 19, 2008, Lieutenant Ed Ogle asked Robinson for 
> guidelines to operating the plane. Interestingly, the quote at the 
> bottom of Ogle’s email reads, “All that is necessary for the forces of 
> evil to win in this world, are for enough good people to do nothing.” 
> Apparently, the Sheriff and his men are doing/ something/ with this 
> drone to stomp out evil. At this time, the use of drones domestically 
> was still new and relatively unregulated. Robinson replied to Ogle, 
> “Since we are pretty much on the leading edge, we have some latitude 
> in specific departmental procedures, but for the most part, everyone 
> has accepted our guidelines and flight procedures.”
>
> In September 2008, the drone was finally shipped to Illinois, but 
> there was a question of whether it could be insured. As the Sheriff’s 
> insurance agent said, “this is a first that we see this type of 
> surveillance technology used by a county.”
>
> *First Voyage*
>
> The drone’s “first voyage” was scheduled for January 22, 2009. Where 
> or when it was flown is unknown. Lieut. Cook was trying to gain 
> permission from the ROTC to fly it in their armory. In the meantime, 
> he was flying it on his parents’ property.
>
> The first to learn how to operate the plane, which required many hours 
> of training, was Lucas Munds, of the Sheriff’s “Street Crimes Unit” 
> (SCU), a drug unit. The drone was primarily to be used by the SCU and 
> investigations. Travis Burr, from investigations, was initially 
> assigned to the team of pilots, but in 2010 he was dismissed 
> <http://www.ucimc.org/content/sheriff%E2%80%99s-deputy-fired-dui> 
> after being charged with a DUI.
>
> The drone was only flown for a few months before, in May 2009, it 
> crashed and received water damage. It was sent to Texas for repair and 
> returned in October. In September 2010, it was broken again and 
> returned to the manufacturer. Shortly after, Lucas Munds resigned from 
> the Sheriff’s department and they had to start from scratch. In the 
> Spring of 2011, the plane was once again sent back to Texas after 
> failing to work.
>
> By 2011, the Sheriff was preparing to apply for a Certificate of 
> Authority (COA) with the FAA. There were requirements that the drone 
> not be flown within five miles of any airport and be clear of and 
> Military Operations Areas. In May 2011, Gene Robinson said that Mesa 
> County, Colorado, got permission to fly a drone in their “ENTIRE” 
> county and recommended that Walsh “go for the same.” Walsh replied, 
> “Be nice if [the drone] worked at all! Whole county―wow.”
>
> I filed a FOIA for a copy of the COA, but received a letter on Oct. 11 
> that said the record did not exist, but added, “It is to be understood 
> that this does not mean that the records do not exist under another 
> spelling, another name, or under another classification.”
>
> *Getting in the Drone Game *
>
> Correspondence further indicates that the Sheriff was on the cutting 
> edge of this new trend. In an email dated May 22, 2011, Robinson wrote 
> to Lieut. Ogle, “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you guys were 
> WAAAaaay ahead of the pack in getting your UA [Unmanned Aerial]. Seems 
> like more and more PD’s and SO’s are getting in the drone game.”
>
> I spoke to Robinson on the phone on October 23, 2012 and he told me 
> that he is getting is getting interest from the Army Corps of 
> Engineers, research agencies, in addition to other law enforcement 
> agencies. When asked how many drones he had sold, he said, “about a 
> dozen.”
>
> Indeed, Sheriff Walsh may be looking for a second drone. In February 
> 2012, Lieut. Cook sent the Sheriff a link to a website for a drone 
> called the “Nighthawk,” costing $30-40,000. The link was provided by 
> John Dwyer, of the Champaign County Emergency Management Agency, whose 
> wife’s company makes the drone.
>
> There is also evidence that the Sheriff has been monitoring the 
> increased use of drones across the country. In April 2012, his new 
> pilot, investigator Andrew Good, sent a story 
> <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/04/01/drones-gain-popularity-among-us-hobbyists-government-agencies/> 
> from Fox News about the growing popularity of drones. Later that 
> month, Jail Superintendent Allen Jones sent the Sheriff a news story 
> <http://www.policeone.com/police-products/radios/surveillance/articles/5482885-Ala-police-chiev-discovers-department-owns-drones> 
> about a police chief in Alabama who was surprised learn that his 
> officers had purchased a $150,000 drone, after the FAA released its 
> list of 63 agencies certified to fly drones. In the subject of the 
> email, Jones had written, “We are not on the list….” Apparently, the 
> Sheriff and his men are also concerned with keeping their names out of 
> the press.
>
> From the documents provided, it looks as if the Sheriff’s drone has 
> been downed by mechanical failures as much as it has been in the air. 
> According to a flight log obtained, the Sheriff’s drone was flown four 
> times between November 2011 and May 2012, all for training purposes 
> only. Two of the flights were “Non-Successful,” with the most recent 
> one ending in a crash. They were flown in the park outside the 
> Brookens County Administrative building and at a park in the nearby 
> city of St. Joseph.
>
> While there may be beneficial uses of a drone, there is good reason to 
> believe the Sheriff will mostly be using the drone to track down 
> suspected drug dealers. Given other racial disparities 
> <http://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/content/police-move-improve-relations-black-communities-champaign-urbana> 
> in the local criminal justice system, it is likely that African 
> Americans and Latinos will be the ones being watched. But even Sheriff 
> Walsh’s own conservative friends should be worried about this kind of 
> Big Brother surveillance.
>
>
> -- 
> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
> 303 W. Locust St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
> briandolinar at gmail.com <mailto:briandolinar at gmail.com>
>
>
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