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

Fri Nov 9 17:19:43 UTC 2012

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
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