Mic check. Employees, darts with GPS tags. It's the latest tool being used by at least 1 to The city of Chicago city council rules of conduct for public meetings, 2023 to 2027, pursuant to the Chicago city council Rules of Order and procedure rule, 49, the sergeant-at-arms sets forth, the following rules of conduct to be followed during the public comment period and the duration of all committee and City Council, meetings, profane vulgar, threatening abusive or disruptive language is not permitted. Demeaning discriminatory or harassing behavior and speech directed towards others is not permitted disruptive behavior, including disruptive or disrespectful content. During others presentations is not permitted, banners flyers, or signage are not permitted backpacks, large bags, and sharp objects are not permitted. Clear bags, not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12 by 6. In will be permitted in our subject to search health food and beverages including in metal canisters are not permitted. Cell phones must be placed on silent prior to entering the meeting room. Individuals must remain seated, public comment speakers are permitted to stand only when providing public comment, small handheld devices may be used only while seated and the user must refrain from interfering with the view or hearing of other individuals, individuals or groups failing to adhere to. These rules will be asked to see such disruptive conduct and failure to comply. Will result in there being subject to removal from the meeting by the sergeant-at-arms. City of Chicago city, council rules of conduct for public meetings, 2023 to 2027, pursuant to the Chicago city council Rules of Order and procedure rule, 49, the sergeant-at-arms sets forth, the following rules of conduct to be followed during the public comment period and the duration of all committee and City Council, meetings, profane vulgar, threatening abusive or disruptive language is not permitted. Demeaning discriminatory or harassing behavior and speech directed towards others is not permitted. Disruptive behavior, including disruptive or disrespectful content. During others presentations is not permitted, banners Flyers, Or signage or not permitted backpacks, large bags. And sharp objects are not permitted. Clear bags, not The meeting, uh, will come to order. This is a Joint Committee hearing of, uh, Public Safety and, uh, Economic Development technology. We will Begin by establishing a roll call. We'd like to thank, uh, those who are coming over, from a conflicting meeting with transportation to establish Quorum. Uh, we'll start with our co-chairs alderman. Hopkins is President co-chair, viega is present. Uh, Vice chair antsy. He was here as he's. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I'll call him again at the End of the Roll Call. Uh, Vice chair Mosley. Alderman. Laspada present. Alderman Hall. Alderman Mitchell. Okay, we'll call him at the end. Uh Alderman. Chico Alderwoman Lee. Alderwoman Gutierrez. Alderman Lopez. Alderman. Curtis Alderwoman Tabares. Alderman, cincho Lopez. Alderwoman Fuentes. Alderman. Tally Farrell. Alderwoman Cruise. Alderman, Cardona. Alderman waguespack. It was here. Okay. Alderman uh, alderwoman admits Alderman's pisado. Alderman Vasquez. Alderman Napolitano. Alderman. Reilly Alderman, kuden Alderman Gardner. Alderaan Martin Alderwoman. Mina hoppenworth Alderwoman Haden. Alderwoman Silverstein. 789. Um, all he's not on the committee. Uh, Alderman, Bernett is president for the guest role call, uh, Alderman Mosley. Alderman Mitchell. Yeah. Yeah. And walk us back to it, alderman waguespack. We just need Mitchell and wages back to say, present and we're going to start our meeting. well, we need a We are in a delayed, roll call right now. We're waiting for 2 members to walk over from uh 128. Washington. That's right. We did rename it there. Alderman waguespack. Alderman. Okay, a quorum having been established. The meeting is convened. We will start with the motion for, uh, roll. 59 requests from Alderman laspada. Alderwoman Silverstein alderwoman mitts and Alderman Gardner. Is there, a motion to allow for remote participation? Uh an older woman Crews added to that list, moved by alderwoman Lee Barry, no objection. So ordered Uh, and add Alderman Vasquez to the rule, 59, remote access list. We will begin with public testimony. Uh, the first speaker is Michael Young bae. Um yeah. To speak about Public Safety. That. This local government saying not to care about. Um, I'm really not for. I'm really not for the shots fathers to be honest. I'm really not. But at the same time is incompetent to not have nothing to replace it. because, We need people to take part in the community of public safety to make the police calls. You know, we can't rely on technology that come after the fact, we trying to curb the violence before it start, not something afterwards. and I think that, my personal belief is that, uh, I listened to, um, well, the alderman pointed out about the stocks people got investment in shot spotter. Sound thing, Etc. So it seemed like it's just a A financial. Game. With the shot spotter because if you really cared about the violence and Community safety and your Awards as Alderman, then you'll go around in your Awards. You know, you'll be known on your Awards, not just come time for election, you'll be seeing community outreaches, and Etc. Things are uplifting to bring about more peace in the community. You know you'll be walking your neighborhoods Etc. We should not just see you on the news because it's a talking point for something we should see you on the news when you actually doing something in your community, besides, come election, time to help curb the violence, Because other than that, you just talking playing a political game. We need people. On the doorsteps. We need. The police assisting really in the neighborhood. Not just for a talking point for the news. Oh, we we came in, March through this neighborhood and then you gone. But in good neighborhoods, as y'all look at it, European neighborhoods, as as what it is. You know what, it downtown up north and things like that. Y'all got police just sitting in the neighborhoods patrolling Etc. You don't see that, you know, and our neighborhoods, as people say on the south and west side, you see them coming through. It's mainly when we see the police, we hearing the sirens already, For the most part, we need true people to be and have the faith. And put the fruition in of true Public Safety. You know, and Technology doesn't go answer the call all the time. That's why we need hands on. You should be known in your communities, in your schools, Etc. I please have an order in Mitchell to the Quorum roll call. The next speaker is George Blakemore Mr. Blakemore you have a mental problem. Is almond have a mental problem. The citizens in the city of Chicago, have a mental problem. just the idea that I got to paint it all up and Rush down here and they have 2 meetings, the meeting meetings at the same time and then 1 recess. And while 1 is talking, somebody else is talking So this is truly a dog and pony show. Where are the people? You don't want to educate your public because with the people knew what kind of s h you really? I they wouldn't vote for you. They don't know you. They don't know who you are and what you do and how you spell out. all of you, your black ones, your white ones, your age, all of your Hispanic or 1 Party Machine Now I I came down here all painted up and I said I'm going to these comedian meetings. Did you know, I'm talking to the walls? The wall is empty. There and Everywhere. This is a broken system. It needs to go down and somebody say the new technology, you must embrace it. That's what happened to the black man in Africa. He was, uh, captured and enslaved by inferior, man. That knew the, uh, uh, new technology. And that new technology was the gun and the gun powder. The guns and the gun powder. So you do need to embrace the new technology. But that's right. so it's something inherently wrong and you get a little group of cardiac of black that come up and I'm 1 of them and spit out in this mic. Why not? The Chinese? Why not the Hispanics? Why not the agent? They don't come down. It's something wrong with all of us. Now I went over to Mitchell's that other meeting is recessed. And then you play musical, chair, 1 of you, get up, And I am a part of the show. I come to show up and to show up search for all of you, what, to kiss now, tell them to throw me out. Hello Mr. Hopkins like you did before put George Blakemore out yo hey need to be out and with the other all of y'all can kiss me now. Oh, he's saying derogatory thing. What you're doing here is evil, it's corrupt, it's simple all of you. So I'm a part of the dog and pony show, too. The next speaker is Zoe Lee. Uh, I'm, I'm here. And I'm looking at like the Democrat, the, the Socialists of the city council. And as I see like 2, To an impossible here. And that's the and the main ones that that pushed this socialist agenda in this in cap in Chicago is crazy. Um, because like I said, then you can't push yourself. I don't care what nobody say, you're not gonna be able to push no socialist agenda, a socialist agenda in a capitalist Society, it's not going to work but the issue is that defund? The police problem, right? Because the ones that are that are not here. The the the the the the, the Hispanic KKK they want to push the fund, the police not because They're scared of the, the black and brown issue with policing. It's because It's a money game case drug trafficking, sex trafficking human trafficking and making a lot of money. Okay? They don't want their communities police over police because At the end of the day, they don't want police to actually do their job and arrest these criminals. Okay, so that's the main issue. So when it comes to you guys merging the economic technology and Public Safety together, everything does not have to depend on technology and that's the problem. That's the problem with our children right now. That's the problem with the school system. That's the problem with everything hire more police, okay? That's number 1. Number 2 is people who have felonies from 10 11, 12, 13 years ago because they were a kid and did stupid stuff consider looking at those felonies and letting them apply for these police jobs that we that they would they're they're trying to apply. But because they have these little felonies from 10 and 13 years ago, they're not able to get on the force and they actually want to make a difference. So, you guys are sitting here wasting time while again, somebody just got shot on 61st and came the the same place where y'all said, they they're not doing any drug activities in police and all that. Yeah, they are. It's a lot of drugs and stuff happening over there, but you can't lock them up because Rosana Rodriguez Sanchez and Carlos Ramirez, Rosa who's head of the Hispanic, KKK down here, cornered, um, Lori Lightfoot and told her to sign this executive order where the police can't work with ice. So at the end of the day, what is the purpose of this meeting? Because you can't do anything until that is somebody breaks breaks that order. So the only person that could do that, I is somebody who is American first American who like cares, about America and right now the only person that is Trump. So, you know, so we have that has to be broken. So the police can actually do their job because the the Hispanic KKK does not. Here, you see, they're not even here today, right? Because they do not care. They don't care. It's a money game. Now they getting the next speaker is Jessica Jackson. Now. So, um, They say as the head is, there goes the body. And right now, in the city of Chicago, we have a very, very corrupt and vindictive, and retaliatory, head, In the form of Mayor, Brandon Johnson. Mayor, Brandon Johnson, dictates what everybody does, whether it's right or wrong. He dictates what everybody does? He has his picks? And they do what they tell him to do. And at this point, based on what I learned about my case this weekend, And about how people like David Moore. Sitting here and have listened to me talk about my probate case. And then I find out this weekend. He doing some type of seminar. With Cedric gals. And Bill Laurie. About probate after death. When I found out. that the 1 of the people, Who went up in the meeting? About my case. Straight up sold me out. It's because he's trying to get a seat on the school board. So I'm pretty sure Brandon Johnson. Let him know if he want that seat on the school board. You going to mess up her case cuz that's exactly what happened. just like, He told Matt Martin. even though he is civil rights attorney, Not to deal with my case. That's why he get up and run out. Just like he told Lawson and them to keep me off the mic because regardless of what you all might think, no, no. The whole country is paying attention to Chicago. The whole country is paying attention to what I say to what Michael say to, what Zoe say, the whole country is paying attention to what we're saying. so, every time We get tricked off the mic, like, with the tricks of the thing, or these meetings, it doesn't matter because YouTube is picking it up. Y'all straight sold out my case. You sold out my case. People like Hall. who's just a Fool. Straight sold out my case. Uh, that concludes our public speakers. Please add Alderman, Moore to the attendance roll call. Uh yeah, not corn. Roll call attendance. Roll call. Uh this is a subject matter hearing on technology that can in enhance Public Safety. Uh, we have a number of Public, Safety officials here to speak to us today. Uh our first guest has a presentation on technology that is in use extensively throughout the suburban. Chicago area with us today is Sergeant, Jason wood from the Oak Brook Police Department. And he will present, uh, something called starchase, which is a system that is in use, uh, in the Oak Brook Police Department to Aid in, um, vehicle Pursuits. Mr. Wood Sergeant would thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Chairman. so, the reason I'm here today, um, I had a meeting with chairman Vegas and or I'm sorry, Alderman, Vegas and chairman Hopkins about a week and a half ago about starchase starchase is what we consider a Pursuit mitigation tool that we're utilizing in the suburbs, um, is actually a national product, um, more recent to the Midwest. Um, but to assist with um continuing to locate and apprehend offenders after crimes, even when they flee. Um, so what I have I'm going to do first is I have a Couple minutes clip from CBS 2 news that kind of sums up everything. And then I will try to break it down a little bit more for you. Doesn't look like a gun but it doesn't shoot bullets. It deploys darts with GPS tags. It's the latest tool being used by at least 1, Suburban Police Department entirely eliminating, the need to chase criminals in a story, you'll see only on 2 CBS 2's. Tara, Molina found the darts in action in Oakbrook. Here's a look at what we're talking about. This is a GPS Dart. It can be deployed through a police cruiser like this this right here or a handheld launcher. Like this 1, it's technology being used by Oakbrook police that can help them. Avoid a dangerous, deadly high-speed chase entirely. Here's a look at exactly how all of this works. A split-second decision made easy because the GPS equipped tag. Now stuck on that van basically allows us to eliminate the need for a high-speed Pursuit worries about police jurisdiction issues and any concerns about Danger on the roads, it's got 2 tubes inside of it with our GPS tags. I got 1 17 you back with me with high-speed police chases. Not only a safety concern. Sometimes, in some places, they're not even an option. Police and Sheriff's departments across the country and right here in Illinois are all following different rules when it comes to chasing a wanted criminal and went to stop chasing entirely. We'll have the ability to track that vehicle with our map coordinate Resources with other agencies and surrounding officers and make an apprehension on that vehicle without having to engage the lives of those around. The Oak Brook, Police Department started using the technology a few years ago and hasn't looked back. The reality is that everyone runs from the police. Nowadays Chief Brian, strokous telling me, it's made all the difference. This technology has helped us, um, to get to that location safely and make that apprehension and recover stolen vehicles. When, uh, otherwise we may have terminated a Pursuit because it was just getting too dangerous. Not just here, we're told. The tech has been a huge help in their Partnerships with departments in Hinsdale, Villa Park and Chicago other departments are are calling Us over the radio when they have uh, situations that that they think this technology could be useful, it's made by a company called starchase currently working with police and Sheriff's, departments in 32 states, and internationally made possible here through the police budget approved by the village board as an added tool to their toolkit. He says, it's not cheap but it's a lot cheaper than uh, you know, a possible lawsuit. Here's another. Look at how they work. You saw the handheld launcher. Here's what it looks like from the police cruiser and officer launches the dart. And once it's stuck on a car, once we're able to uh, get that tag of fixed to the vehicle, uh it goes to our Dispatch Center, that's able to monitor where that, uh, vehicle is going, and then we can safely get to that location and try and make an apprehension at that time. They're using this technology on a weekly basis here in Oakbrook, you can find more on the tech where else it's being used. And the difference that it's making in this story, it's up on our website right now. Okay, so that's that's basically a, a high-level overview on starchase and the technology. Um, what I can say is several years ago, our department decided we needed to look at, um, finding a balance between meeting the expectations of our community, and actually apprehending these criminals and not just letting them get away and turning off our lights and turn around and the risks involved with a Pursuit. Um, start Chase was 1 of those companies that we reached out to talked to. Um, we started with Just 2 units uh on squad cars. Uh what that does is it allows us to position ourselves um activate that star Chase tag on a vehicle back. Our squad car is off, utilize other resources, other technology and other tools to coordinate a apprehension plan rather than chasing somebody around on the highway at 115 miles an hour. Um, we all know that in most of these instances, the offenders that are flying, there is no care for Life, their vehicle, or anybody else's vehicle. While we have to maintain that. There are studies out there that show within about 2 minutes of a, a fleeing suspect leaving the police. They return to normal driving So starchase Works similar to a 3 SI software, which you'll see in most retailers that they have on a lot of their product. It is an internet internet and web-based Maps. So all we have to do is log into it and then we can track that round every 3 to 5 seconds. It's telling us where that tag is at. Um it is not a permanent a fixation some epoxy and a magnet that sticks to that vehicle. So there is Is the opportunity for this to fall off? There is the opportunity for the offender to see this on a vehicle pull over. Pull it off and Chuck it in the woods. Um, but we have had anywhere between an 85 and a 90% success rate. Once an actual tag is a fixed successfully and on making an apprehension on that vehicle without uh, a lot of the same circumstances you see with the pursuit, Uh, Sergeant, could you describe how you interact with other jurisdictions and agencies? Because as we all know fleeing Vehicles, you know, cross uh Municipal lines and you happen to have the interstate highway system that goes through your village. So you have to work with State Police. How does that work? Yeah. So we um, about 5 years ago. Our chief was our detective sergeant and he, um, decided along with a couple other of our Eastern DuPage County border towns, uh, that we need to do something as a group to kind of coordinate efforts to make sure these things are happening. We don't have the resources and the Manpower that Chicago has, we're very limited on what we have. So we need to find a way to make use of that. Um, so we actually got in shot in touch with the Chicago vehicle. Hijacking. Task force talked to them about how they run things and what that has done has led to a mutual kind of conglomeration um with them and ISP and all other Suburban agencies that um, we kind of work together. So we actually have a direct line to the helicopters now, and we have a great relationship. The nice thing about starchase is that that map is not. Limited to the borders of Oakbrook. So if this tag leaves the town of Oakbrook, it's not just going to shut off and stop. This will this will go anywhere that as long as it's active, this has a short-term battery life um and there's a reason for that. Um, It is more a tool, an apprehension tool, it is an agency circumstances situation. Um, and that avoids, any legalities and violating someone's rights. I don't have the ability to put this on a car and follow it around for 3 days and see what they're doing. After about 8 hours, it's going to die. So if I don't, if I don't make an apprehension at 8 hours, it's it's useless to me. Um, but pulling up that map, I have the ability to get on the radio communicate with them through start um through different patches. We use with our radio channels and we can make that branch that way. This isn't something though that I'm going to stick in a car and then it ends up in Chicago. I don't want to say, hey Chicago can you go get my car for me? We still have a responsibility and expectation that our agency is the 1. That's going to go track this down. Uh, questions from committee members. Uh, please add alderwoman Fuentes to the Quorum roll call and we'll start with Alderman's pisado. Thank you, chairman. Uh, thanks for coming out. S, appreciate you. I believe the answer to 1 of my questions. That's about not going to thing off. Um, but I'm just guessing what uh, it's it's a great technology obviously, but I'm guessing most of these cars are stolen or chasing. I don't know if you found that to be true. Yes, but you guys have 1 Man cars though, right? You don't have 2 man cars. So the the way things work for us is um our Patrol Division operates with 1 Man car. Um but our detective vision and our attack unit, work is too many. Cars. So in addition to making changes and adding tools such as starchase and stop sticks and things like that. Um we have made the determination that Based upon our community, we have a high um success rate with unmarked patrols. Um Oprah is a small community. We have about 8,000 residents but our daytime population is over 100,000 we have the third largest grossing Shopping Center in the entire country and that is our Crown Jewel. Um because of that, we have an expectation. That anything that happens in that mall that we're there and we're taking care of it. So right now I run our tax unit we have um 2 2 2 man cars that run 10 hour days and we're there 7 days a week. Um so with that technology, um like you saw in the video, there is a vehicle mounted in a handheld, both of our TAC Teams run with a a handheld unit and we have the ability to to utilize it that way. Yeah, I just heard it be difficult for a 1-man car to kind of like uh shoot it out the window or something. Yeah. So that's what the vehicle mounted units are for. So we started out with 2 units. Um about a year and a half ago, thanks to the attorney general's, Grant, we outfitted 50% of our Fleet and we actually, um, just signed the purchase order. So, uh, every Squad, every marked squad car That we have will be outfitted with a vehicle mounted launcher. Um, that is operated with a simple control panel inside the Quad Squad card, just like your license Sirens panel. And the nice thing about it is that there's also a fob on my key tag. So, if I make a traffic stop and I get out of my car and that car starts to flee. I can just push this button. It'll deploy that starchase onto that vehicle. And it's not like, I'm, I'm 10 minutes behind trying to track, I already have it attached to the car, right? All right. Thanks for coming out and sharing with us. Appreciate it. No problem. Thank you chairman. Alderman to politano followed by Alderman Walkers, back. Thank you chairman. Uh, appreciate you coming out. It's really cool technology. I've actually seen it, um, used on TV a couple of times. uh, as far as um, Where we service the Midwest. How is it weather-wise with with our, our cold Winters or our our rainy days, is it, does it? So, fortunately starches had the opportunity um, to work with us. We were the initial agency in Illinois. Um, now there are probably about 7 or 8, uh, different agencies, including South barington Willowbrook, Hinsdale Elmhurst. Um, and as a matter of fact, Countryside, just went to it where they have a lot of issues with recovered stolen vehicles. Um, the way that the star Chase launcher works is as long as that vehicle is turned on. There is an ambient temperature maintained inside the launcher itself, when you arm the launcher, it has heating tables that then heat up to 400 Degrees. Those heating tables heat the epoxy on the front of this round and there's also a large significant magnet inside here. Um so as long as this isn't the typical like hey I just I just pulled my car and I cleared off my windshield and that's it. And I have 10 feet of snow on it or it's pouring rain. It has been extremely successful. The nice thing about this too is we have had misses with starchase that have bounced off the payment and stuck to the underside of a vehicle because of that magnet. So it does have a dual capability to stick. Um Um, just like anything else, it's a technology. There is error. Um but we've we've found significant success with it. Cool. Um, and as far as you said the it it detects outside of your jurisdiction. Are you able to cross besides By Radio? Are you able to cross that information by computer to uh surrounding municipalities as well? Yes. So it it operates similar. If you're familiar with 3si at all, you know, a lot of the private sector Realtors work. Um, have that technology, our Dispatch Center as well as all of our surrounding agencies. Have the ability to log in and sign into this. Um, we utilize an RTC system, similar to the SDS CSS, rrtc can pull it up, um, and run that information as well. The nice thing about it is is as many units. As you have you can track all of them or 1, right? So I can look at some of our deployed units that have been sent back um, to Virginia, um, because once they're used you can only can only use them once, um, and I can see it in Virginia on my map. So it it, it'll go anywhere in the country as long as that map is active and as long as the battery is not dead. Once that battery dies, you're, you're done. It'll give you the last known location of it, and that's it. Okay, cool. Thank you, chairman. I appreciate the your answers and thank you for the technology bringing it here. Alderman waguespack followed by Alderman Bernett. Thanks chairman. Um, it was Sergeant would write correct. Okay. Um, The the cost for you guys is that um, it seems like it's pretty low based on some other municipalities that I've seen. Um are you you know, you get, you buy the initial equipment, which was the 2, handheld devices, and then so you have to continue to buy the other pieces to. So, I mean, each launcher is an independent of itself, right? You're purchasing that launcher for that vehicle. Um, if that vehicle needs to be changed out for any reason, you have the ability to take that launcher off that car and put it on another 1. Um, so there is the cost of the equipment and then there is um, the way that um starchase works, it is, um, they have, I think it's called like total asset program and that includes your your tags and your access to the web-based GM. And that's a subscription-based service every that you pay yearly. Um, and that's just dependent on the number of of units you have okay. And then um, I I know a little bit about it but uh I don't know if you can speak to this or maybe somebody else can later but does the app software, um, mesh with any other software or uh devices. for instance, I I don't know how many LPR cameras or For that type of Technology. Oprah has I'm assuming you guys have um the highest density of LPR cameras in the entire state. So um how do you coordinate with that? If you can, if you can say that. Um, and what we've done is is there's another technology out there called fusus. Um fusus is bought by axon. So now they're run by axon, but they're an online. Basically what they call, an rtcc platform. So the apis for all these different um, Technologies can be incorporated if fuses and we can see it on 1 map. Um, but as long as you have access to the internet, you have access to this map. Okay. And then with that, do you have you know, we have the sdsc rooms. Do you have a similar setup, where your team is sitting there coordinating? Unfortunately, we don't we're not at a 247 capacity yet, like the sdsc rooms are. Um but the nice thing is is that room is accessible to anybody. Um, we've made it so and again because we are a smaller agency, Addison Elmhurst Bensenville will operate out Of our rtcc room and basically. Okay, we kind of run it as a quasi County. Rtcc room like a met this thing. Okay, excellent, thank you very much. Thank you chairman, vice mayor Bernett. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman, I think this is a fantastic, uh, product. Uh, only thing only thing that that concerns me if, if If you can ever be accused of racial profiling with it. So I'm sure, uh, just like anything else. There always can be an accusation, right? Like I you can accuse me of stopping you for doing 115 on the highway and saying, I stopped. You for what color your skin was or or whatever else. Um, the nice thing about star chasing the way it works. And the way it operates is in our within our policy, we can only deploy starface when we have reasonably a crime, has been committed, or is being committed, right? So we also have the ability, um, in Oakbrook, to predeploy starchase prior, to turning our lights on So, for us, the majority of the incidents in which star Chase are used, are either stolen cars, located via LPR technology or retail thefts that happen out of our mall. So once we have that vehicle description, if we are able to successfully locate, we'll we'll deploy that star Chase before we turn our lights on. Um, we all know especially now, um, people that have committed a crime but they see the police flying them. They're they're, they're fully in right away. So, with the mark squad car, it is a little bit more difficult, right? Because there is a human error to it. You're you're deploying it from 1 car that's moving onto another car that's moving. Um but because of our success with our covert units and what we do in the suburbs with covert following it and and stuff like that, we will attempt to make a stop with a A Marked unit and then that marked unit will turn this the lights off as soon as that guy takes off and we're already in the area with all our clients. We're able to cover covert follow that thing and stay pretty close to it without them realizing the police. Are there while that tag is on it. So as with anything else there is that, um, possibility? Um, if you go to Star Chase's website, you'll notice that the NCAA ACP does already endorsed star Chase as a technology that they are, uh, willing to back. Fantastic. Thank you. No problem. Uh, additional questions. Vice cherry ancy. Uh, couple questions 1 and I stepped out, so I might have missed this. How much was as uh, how much does this cost? So the technology is going to vary based on whether you want the vehicle mounted or the handheld units. I'm not a salesperson for them, so I don't have the numbers directly. Um, there is a more significant cost for the vehicle amount versus the handheld, for obvious reasons. Um, the vehicle mounted unit is hardwired to the battery. It does have a a council piece that, that is in the center, Council of the vehicle and it does operate basically off an air compressor, that's, that's put in the squad car. So it is a little bit more expensive than the handheld unit. Um, and there always, is that per your subscription cost because, you know, If you just buy 1 of these right and you use it then you're you're kind of out of luck. Um, but having that unlimited, um, subscription plan, it allows us, we've never, we never run out, we always have a stock of 30, 40 50, 60 extra. And then depending on the number of units you have depends on what that base is going to look like that you're sitting on and you know in between uses okay and when you begin using this and over. So this started um Right before coid, uh, we had 2 units. Um, and initially, As with everybody else. Um departments change, um, changes um philosophies change within an agency, the initial reason. And um we went to starches was basically um just like everybody else we went to a strict, no Pursuit policy. So unless you basically have a homicide you're not pursuing a car and this was going to help us do that. Um through coid. And then through the op Center mall, shooting that we had, um, we realized in our community had an expectation that, um, we're not just going to let people commit crimes in our community, and then just because they decide that they're not going to stop for us, we're just going to let them go. Um, so we've now adapted that technology to assist us, and, and mitigate Pursuits. But we've also adapted our tactics to that as well. So not just star Chase, um, spike strips, and a whole bunch of other stuff as well as our engagement with the agencies around us have really led to an extremely successful rate, probably more so than I think we would have expected we would have had. And again you're attributing that rate to the sort of the whole Suite of correct options that you use. All right. Um, 89 85, 95% effective way. How many times has this been deployed since you've been using it? Uh, we deployed almost on a it's, it's almost a weekly basis. Um, I'd I don't have the numbers in front of me, um, but it's almost on a weekly basis that we're using it. Um, we do have a lot of times where we'll deploy it and they'll still stop. And that's okay. Because if they do stop, I just grabbed the And I pull it off, right? And and now this is out of service and I'm not tracking you, um, but the risk of actually deploying it and not needing it. Is minimal, right? But if I don't deploy this and and something does happen. Then I'm I'm severely increasing the risk to the community, okay? And then in 85, 95% effective rate is that effective in recovering the vehicle or effective in a prosecution. It's a combination of both. The prosecution piece of it is is totally and completely separate, right? Um, that usually as you guys know, could take a year or 2 years, 3 years, down the road. So as far as prosecution goes, um, I can't give you numbers on that. Um, typically, we're recovering vehicles and and almost I I I would say pretty close to that rate is apprehensions. And fortunately, for us, those operate apprehensions are followed by felony charges, which are also followed by detainment in prison based on an aggravated fleeing and losing charge. Okay. And then has this been challenged in court so we have not had it challenged in Illinois. Star Chase has not had it challenged. Um, they have multiple different uh, sites on their website. So if you go to Star chase.com, I believe they have a whole Litany of Articles. Um, NAACP perf International Association, she's the police are several organizations. That have talked about it that have written articles about it, but because of the short, duration of the ability to follow somebody there really, hasn't, been anybody challenge it in court. Okay. All right. That's it. Thank you. Please add Alderman, Central Lopez to the roll, call alderwoman Lee. Thank you chairman. Um Alderman Yancey took 1 of my questions but that's okay. It was a my question really was was about how effective you've found this technology. Um, this also sort of presumes that you're able to respond quickly to, uh, the site of a crime. Um, in order to be close enough to deploy something. Absolutely. Um, how What are your response times? Like um it's just something like at the mall because I know let's let's follow that example. So for us um because Oprah is situated the way it's situated in the data shows that you know, pretty close close to 90% of our criminal activity does occur within that region. Our Tech unit, which is a 2-man car and we have 1 on every day of the week and on Wednesdays we have 2 and then I I have a separate car. We're either in the mall or what we call the shops which is right down the street. It's our other strip mall with a couple high-end stores. We're in 1 of those locations the entire time we're we're pretty much minus our lunch break or having to go to the bathroom. That's the beat basically. Yeah. Our our mall is a beat in and of itself. So there's a marked car assigned to that mall. All day long 247. Um, we did see a huge increase in success rate and just use with the amount of units we had when we had 2 units. Obviously, you know if the car that has it is on the other side of town. It's it's again, it is a tool. Um, it does still take human element to this to to be successful. And there is still the human element of your deploying it from a vehicle at a vehicle, right? Right. So there is still some training and and stuff that has to go through. Um, the nice thing about having the 2 tags in a tube is if you do miss or if it doesn't stick, you have another 1 that that you can correct to make that happen. So we've been extremely successful. I mean there's always going to be times just with any other technology. Just like any other tool in law enforcement, including a firearm is not always going to work 100% of the time. Um but we have seen not just with the technology but with the tactics we're using with it have led to that succulent extremely high rate. Yeah. It sounds like you've had um really great success just given the the issues that you're dealing with and to be able to have um, a car constantly sort of in the vicinity of where where the that makes a big difference. Yeah, it does. It does make a big difference because my thought here was just, you know, what we're so we're so spread out. Um, and and the amount of time we it's an amazing technology that it's really. It is, and I think deploying the technology in a manner that you're utilizing the data, the analytics and stuff to, to put it in the place that it's best going to be successful, right? Um, you know, CPD and ISP both have units that um, operate in a manner in which this technology would be tremendous for and then there's parts of CPD that probably would not be very successful or so it just depends on Deploying it properly, and in the right places to be successful, right? I I could see using, uh, pod cameras and an sdsc room. You know, if we we see a vehicle fleeing in their cars, in the vicinity, if you can get close enough, you can tag 1 of these and then, you know, you're not pursuing. But you You still have to get to the cards. Yeah. So there there are agencies on the west coast that utilize starch chasing a pretty unique matter and we haven't gotten that far yet. But that starts with launcher, has the ability to be mounted within the grill of certain vehicles. And so a lot of gang units on the far, west coast that are dealing with this, on a regular basis or warrant teams that are dealing with this. They have them in unmarked, minivans. And they locate vehicles with wanted people that they're trying to track down and they simulate a fake crash. They come up on a red light gun, it really hard slam on their brakes to make it sound like they just rerun at them, hit the horn and they deploy it. And then when the guy gets out of the car and goes what's going on, they're taking them into custody without that vehicle, even being in a Pursuit. Wow, so you can utilize the technology in a n numerous ways it's as creative as you want it to be. It's just up to the agency and the people that you put in place to to manage that to do it. Appreciate your time today and sharing your experience with us. Thank you, chair. That's all I've got. Alderman. Talia, Ferrell followed by Alderman Vasquez on remote. Thank you, chairman, uh and S. Thanks for being here today. Um, to explain this technology to us. Uh, how many, um, deployments have there been in your department and and again, I, I might have missed the answer to that, uh, so I don't have the exact answer, um, but it is now that we are at the level we're at, uh, having 50% of our Fleet, outfitted, we're almost every single week. We're having at least 1 deployment. Okay, I that's all I have for you. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Alderman Vasquez on remote. Thank you. Jeremy. Uh thank you so much for this presentation and the work. Uh thank you very much Sergeant for being with us, I guess. Um I I you may have answered it before. What, how large is the fleet? How many vehicles are we talking? So our fleets um are marked unit, Fleet we are up to, I want to say we are and now we just increased it by 3 Vehicles. So I want to say our marked unit Fleet that we are going to be fully operational on is at about 13 cars. So for Chicago, that's insignificant right? Um, for us that that's Pretty significant. Um, yeah and the the reason I ask is Right thinking about the rate, but also scaling up to what it costs would look like if you're trying to implement this, a certain places in town, I think, Uh, it's clear that some that there's some utility here in this helpful. As we see with the amount of, uh, settlements, we sometimes have that are from chases, where bystanders are being hit, right? I I understand the where they could potentially be cost savings. It's just trying to figure out what the math looks like as far as scaling up to what a city like Chicago would need in reference. So I know know you'd mentioned rate, but I don't know if there's a specific like a bulk cost or What's the total cost right now for start chasing Oakbrook. Um, so I, I can't tell you, I I, I'm just a lowly sergeant that street. So, I'm not, I I'm not privy to all the numbers. Um, I do know that a single the single vehicle mounted launcher is somewhere between the 6,500 and 7000 range. The handheld launcher is between 35 and 4 thousand for the unit itself. Okay? Uh, as far as sorry. So, you know, you you shoot 1 of those, you know, magnet cans. Uh, and let's say, uh, Let's say it it doesn't the 8 hours run out 8 or it's taken off a vehicle. The star Chase come in like find those to kind of repurpose them. Is that just know. So, last does that work? So the nice thing is is it will give us a last known location. So if we do deploy 1, um we are going to attempt to recover that tag regardless. We don't want to just leave it sitting on the street if we don't have to, there isn't a 100% recovery rate. Um, you know, we we do have 290, um, which can be very difficult to, to try to find some stuff sometimes, um, but we make every effort to recover them and then ship them back to starchase because they do refurbish some of the pieces. Okay. Um, has there have there, been any instances where, It was used and maybe shouldn't have been or something where it wasn't leading us on. Like I'm almost picturing and this is not even anecdotal, right? So there's a pregnant woman in a car, they start racing off. Some officer thinks they're up to something. They shoot, the can atom. Has there been anything where it's not related to an incident or any kind of You know, uh, accidents for lack of a better term. Well if if, if the vehicle is taking off on us, that is a fleeing and eluding incident and that, and that does fit our parameters for, uh, deploying starchase. The nice thing about starchase is, if that car does stop, I can take this thing off and there's no harm, no file, right? Like they stopped, we deal with whatever interaction that is, whether it's a pregnant woman trying to get to the hospital. Uh, whether it's an elderly subject that just doesn't understand what was happening. Um, we have had those incidents before and we can literally just take this off. It's out of service. You know these are a 1-time use uh tool you can't really shove this back into the launcher tube when it's all mangled. Um, but that's why there is the the extra that we have um and just to kind of comment on the other piece about scaling up with an agency size like Chicago. I do know, uh, that New York signed an agreement last year and they've actually just increased that. But I, again, I think, It, it comes down to putting the right Minds in the room and deploying it in a manner that is going to be successful for the agency. It's with, you know, some of those specialty units that are out there, it would be very successful on but there are probably Parts um that would see limited use. So it's just it's going to be dependent on what works for what agency. I I definitely appreciate that. I think, as we as a city are looking at different technologies that we're using, we're not necessarily always clear on the purpose of how we use it to tactics, how we use it, the strategy behind it. It it it sounds good on paper, but if we don't have any plan in place, we're just spending money, right? So, um, I do appreciate your emphasis on that. And if do the chair, if it's possible at all to get any of the data, whether it be Oakbrook or New York on the way to contracts or costs, looks like, I think that would be helpful for some members. Uh, that's all I've got. Thank you, chairman. Oh, thank you. All investors and I do want to clarify for the record. Uh Sergeant wood is a subject matter expert on the use of this technology. Uh, and as such, he has some familiarity with the cost in general terms, but he is not a representative of starchase in any way at all. He is here, solely in his capacity as a sworn law enforcement officer from a neighboring Village, uh, testifying on his personal experience, um, on behalf of, uh, the Oprah Police Department. So thank you, Sergeant wood and, uh, I will call on former police officer and current Alderman Alderman, Chico. Thank you, chair. And thank you, Sergeant for being here. Um, thank you for being here. Um, speaking to your last statement, I think you hit on the head. when you're working in Oakbrook, you are patrolling a centralized location or this tool is most effective at, I think, if the spoiler comes to Chicago, we have to kind of get away from that broad thinking and and maybe first utilize it and specialized units, because they too will be targeting a a centralized location in a specific location to to utilize this technology. Kind of just give me your thoughts on um how important it would be to specialized units instead of the broad uh you know districts and CPD. Well, I I think as with anything else, this is a tool, right? So training does play a role in it. Um, like I, like I said, um, you are deploying A projectile from 1 vehicle to another vehicle. And then a lot of these instances, both vehicles are moving and in Chicago, and in the suburbs and on the highways, most of those roads aren't very smooth. Um, so if you've ever fired a weapon before, you know, that there are a lot of things that come into play with that. Well, now you're running. And trying to fire at something that's running, um, so that training does play a part in it, right? So not only the training and giving the officers the training to utilize the technology in a way that is appropriate, but putting it in a position where it's going to be successful, right? So we know that Chicago has the Chicago vehicle hijacking, team Oakbrook Hinsdale, Elmhurst, Villa Park. We all work with them on saturation nights on a regular basis. We have an extremely good relationship with Steve jaros and his team, um, and they do tremendous work. Starchase would be great for a unit like that, because on a regular basis, their goal is locate aggravated vehicle. Hijackings, locate stolen cars, that are fleeing police locate armed robbery suspects, they have the helicopter assets that assist with those locations and things like that. But if you're going to put this in, you know, SRO vehicles that are stationed at a school, it it's not going to be effective. So it is just like, with any other tool um, being able to put it in position to be successful, is 100% of the success behind that and and what type of training. Go through. Yeah so our initial training so when you whenever you get starchase um or whether it's, you know, 1 unit or 2 units, they have uh they depending on on what product they either do online training with you or they send somebody out to do that initial training and they have what they call a train, the trainer program. So I am a trainer for starchase for our agency. Um, we go through 2 days, 8 hours of not just how the actual unit works and operates but driving and actually deploying these vehicles, right? Um, there's a very simple method of training. It actually has improved. starchase has done wonders from the technology standpoint and making apprehensions, but it's also made huge strides, especially with younger officers, who tend to, um, Lock in on something and and kind of, you know, rack their brain. So if if you're behind a car and you're traveling behind a car and you're you're locked in on that car, you're not seeing much else, but the way star Chase does their training to coordinate and the use of the deployment is that you know you drive past on the side of a vehicle. You match that vehicle speed, you then slide in behind the vehicle deploy. The projectile slide off and back off, right? So you're never directly behind that car, except for the 5 or 10 seconds that it takes to deploy it by not being behind that car. You have a much broader picture and image of what's happening around you as an officer in that squad car. And whether you're driving at 5 Mi an hour or 50 miles an hour, 80 miles an hour officers are seeing a, a tremendous decrease in tunnel vision and auditory exclusion because they're able to pick up the whole picture. Not just focus on that car, you know, um, in Pursuits, especially in Pursuits a lot of times, these crashes are occurring because it's somebody else that doesn't notice what's happening, right? And then a police officer or an offender that doesn't notice what's happening but by utilizing and training your officers to, to operate in this manner. You're never driving directly behind the car, which forces you to, to pay attention to the whole road, which then reduces significant risk to everybody. So it's, it's, it's been, it's been amazing. Um, we then now will train on a yearly basis, um, just driving techniques. You don't even have to necessarily deploy these on a regular basis to do that. But just I will get the shift out and say, all right. This is what we're going to do. We'll spend 5 or 10 minutes driving around and positioning ourselves appropriately to use the technology so that these guys can continue that that up. Um, and 1 last question, like you said, these are 2, moving vehicles, uh, in your experience, Accidents. And and and And things like that. How often do they happen? And what have you seen? You've had zero incidents of a crash, when it's something to the voice searches in the 4 or 5. Maybe 6 years that we've used it. Um and it's because of the way it's trained. Um, we all know and and most people that pay attention to car, chase says no, usually you see the police car right up on that bat like oh I need to get all. That's not really not doing any good, right? Like, they're not going to stop the car, just because you're Bumper to Bumper. Um, but by maintaining that distance and and maintaining that not staying in that lane, um, by Us utilizing our covert Vehicles the way we do. There's a lot of times they don't even recognize that there's a police officer next to him when we deploy it because we're deploying it from a covert vehicle. And we're very fortunate that our covert Vehicles. Don't look like most covert Vehicles so we can get to a red light. Lower our window, deploy it before light, even turns green and they don't even know their police officer behind it. And then once once we deploy that, then we have a marked unit, come over, turn their lights on, try to make the Stop and if they don't stop well now start chasing already deployed we already have their map location and and we can move from there and and and because your proximity to the expressway What's kind of the policy and, and, and Oakbrook. So our like I said, um, since we got starchase, um, and every agency goes through it, you have a change in tactics, change in policy change in decision-making, we went from a no Pursuit policy to a Pursuit with basically supervisor approval. Um, we've had Over a 100% in the last 2 years and we are a very small agency. Um those Pursuits tend to lead to starchase deployments which then changed uh things we've only had 2 incidents. Where there's been anything that I would say? Bad has happened. We had 2 cars that crashed. Um But the majority of the time, we have to match our community's expectations with the balance of, you know, effectively enforcing the law. Right. Um, in a community like opri. Their expectation is if somebody comes to my house and steals my car out of my driveway, that you don't just turn your lights off when they drive away from you. Um, and so we have the ability to then put these pieces in place and and make those things happen. Thank you, Sergeant. Thank you. Alderman Fuentes. Thank you for being here. Sergeant, and sharing your expertise. Can you, uh, welcome us through. If the device has been associated with any sort of like property damage, only because I want to make sure we're accounting for human are, right? We we all make mistakes. Absolutely, absolutely. So the nice thing. So so it's it's a plus and a a minus. So, the way that starchase operates from the mounted unit, I could stand 20 feet outside of that and I can catch that with my hands. Um, not gonna hurt me. We We still will not, you know, you still just like with other things. You're not going to deploy this on a person ever. Um, there is indications and there has been times where, you know, if your car is ever been hit by a golf ball, you can have something similar like that happen. Um, to us, the risk of that versus the risk of a fatal car crash or something even worse. Um, we'll take that all day long. Every day. Um, it doesn't happen very often. Um, it has to happen on the right circumstances with the handheld launcher. There is the likelihood that a little bit higher because because it is a handheld launcher, it does need a little bit more air compression to it than it does come out a little faster. So, That possibility does exist. It's it's minimal but it does exist. Thank you. I appreciate that. Look, we we have sued all the time. What we're paying for damages? Absolutely from some car chases and if this is just going to do a little dent and yeah it's it's going to be significantly different for us for sure. Appreciate it. Thank you, no problem. Vice Cherry antsy. Oh uh, can you use this uh technology only used during vehicle? Pursuits are going to be used during other like what's the policy on it? So our policy is as long as we have reason to believe a crime has been committed, we can deploy starchase. So if we have a retail theft and they have taken off from the mall, and we haven't found it yet. But the store says, hey, Here we had a retail theft occur. Their car was parked in a fire lane. Here's the license plate. We can use it on that. Um, if we have a traffic, if we can initiate a traffic stop. We can deploy it. Um, our policy takes it a step further and says that we can predeploy that before we attempt to make that stuff. so, if we believe that crime has occurred if we have information to believe that we have that Reasonable Suspicion or probable cause to believe that crime has occurred, we can deploy that before we turn our lights on and what that does is it reduces the risk of a miss Because the second the lights go on, that's usually when the game changes, it's no different than a use of force. second, you put a hand on somebody that's when the fight starts. So by being able to predeploy that prior to actually then engagement it makes things safer for everybody. So could there be a scenario where you're driving with some you know an officer is driving through a mall parking. Lot sees this car that looks like a car that was involved in a crime without having maybe license plate details and then using this as a Tracker to know, so it it is an urgency circumstance tool that's used when you have that reasonable belief. So if, if we're not certain that that's the vehicle, we're not going to deploy it on it. Um, the nice thing for us is and as well as a lot of the agencies around us, we have the highest density of LPR cameras in the region. Every entrance and exit to the mall. Has an LPR camera we're at close to 80% of our subdivisions are fully LPR accessed, so we're able to gather a lot of that data before we act and because we use covert Vehicles, the way we do, we can follow that vehicle all day long until we can determine. And if we don't determine it and then we don't determine it and we go find the right car. Um but we have not had a use of this is absolutely the wrong car. We shouldn't have deployed Okay, great. Thank you. Additional questions. Uh, thank you, Sergeant wood before. Uh, we let you go. I just wanted to set the stage for the second part of this meeting, uh, which will be focused on the use of drone technology. Uh, can you just share how this could potentially interface with, uh, aerial surveillance? I know you work with the state police and they have a fixed Wing. Aircraft is there any reason why, uh, drone technology couldn't be utilized as part of starchase know? Uh, and and I've always said, the more the better. Um, Oprah does have a drone program as well. We, we utilize 2, GDI drones um, Fortunately, for us. Um, The helicopters are up and so, we end up using those a lot more than the drones. Um, we just had an aggravated beh vehicular hijacking and a street robbery uh, 2 nights ago and we use the Drone and we end up catching 3 or 3 and getting 3 guns. So, um, drone Technologies, phenomenal that when you pair these tools together, all you're doing is increasing the likelihood of of success. You know using each individual piece on its own is is great but just like with anything else, the more you can bring to the table and put together to make a solid plan. The the higher likelihood of success Pursuits tend to lead to foot chases, no matter what. So by having something like a drone or like a helicopter that can then take that over, Um, because I can't stick this to a person yet. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, Sergeant. Jason, what are the Oak Brook Police Department, really appreciate your very informative and interesting presentation today. And uh, in your personal testimony about the effectiveness of this tool. Thank you so much. Thank you Alvin. Uh, our next uh, presenter is uh, sergeant wehner, rostro from the Chicago Police Department, uh, along with uh, Chief hajdu. I think is is here as well. Yeah. Could you please join us? Uh, up front? They don't have a slideshow but they do have a uh, oral presentation. They're going to talk about the current status, um, of the Drone program in the Chicago Police Department, Good afternoon. Um, For the record, I'm captain Carl. How do um, currently assigned to the uh, special functions on the EXO of special functions within the Bureau of counterterrorism. Uh, to my right, I have Sergeant marker spin rostro who is the commanding officer of our drone unit or or our coordinator. And also have Sergeant Nicholas Orlando from our legal department here, uh, to be able to answer some of your questions or concerns. Uh, our goal here is to give you a kind of a historical perspective on how we got here. Um, I will then turn over to Marcus been rostow who will be able to give you more technical detail. Um, some of our success stories, some of our Visions, uh, for the future and uh, again uh, Sergeant Orlando land will be able here to be able to talk about our, the law, uh, and our policy that we have. So, uh, in september 2023. Um, superintendent Stelling and uh Chief D re will want to start a drone program uh in preparation for the DNC. Uh, so they asked me to uh, spearhead that project. Uh, the Chicago Police Department on 2 separate occasions, uh, attempted to uh, startup drone program, but were unsuccessful, uh, unsuccessful in their projects, uh, but they did leave a foundation for me to be able to go and to build on. Um, I met with a lot of those people that were involved in the recent project. uh, started at immersing myself in the, uh, In the final details of drones, I wasn't uh, not a very technical person. Um, but uh, immerse myself in in Drones espec with in law enforcement. Um, so we started looking at what we did in the past and what we could do in the future to make it successful, originally we wanted to start the program. In a small way, uh, to only do accident reconstruction, uh, forensics, uh, search and rescue for our SWAT teams. So, originally, we were going to, uh, purchase drones and then, um, handles drones out to those specific units, to be able to use them and utilize them for their day-to-day operations. Um, with that, we then began to uh, talk to other law enforcement agencies across the country to see how their programs are operating and what they had in place. And, uh, we quickly realized that that's probably not going to be the best, uh, course of action with the Chicago Police Department. Every department is different. Some are smaller, some are larger. Not to say that 1 program is better than the other. Uh, we just decided that this for uh all intents and purposes was better for the Chicago Police Police Department. We want to take a more centralized unit because we didn't want this program to fail. Uh, we wanted to make sure that we adhere to the law, uh, listen to the Public Public transparency. Um, and you know, there's a lot of reporting that needs to be done. There's a lot of, uh, documentation that needs to be done. Uh training all those need to be kept in 1 place. So we want to establish a unit uh that took pride in and and very professional and we know that they were going to be trained. Um so we we kind of like took a different direction and that's the way that we wanted to go as a police department. We then started looking at some, uh, companies out there as well. Uh, who can, uh, help us achieve that goal. Uh, we brought a lot of the different companies into to test them out to test out what they had. Uh, again we talked to a different law enforcement agencies across the country. Uh, you know, we had our kind of pulse to see what was going on and the legislation as well. Um, you know, We are anticipating purchasing a lot of our drones to grant money. So we are solely for not not solely but we're mostly focused on American-made drone companies, uh, to be able to able to do that. Um, and so then we, uh, in October of 2023, we had, uh, the company Sky deal come out. Uh, they checked, a lot of the boxes for us, they worked with axon, a retention policy. Uh, we had the body warn cameras, uh, they had a robust Community engagement program. Um, so we had some money uh, as a department uh, to spend prior to the end of the year and with the delivery of the drones prior to end of 2024 and Scotty was able to do that for us. Um, So, we are able to end of 20, uh, 24, we uh, obtained, uh, 5 of those gotoh X10 drones. Um, from there, uh, we kept working on our policy uh, to make sure that uh, because we would not be able to deploy these drones without our policy in place. Um, you know, we immerse ourselves in a law and uh we able to get uh a sergeant Marcus Mitchell been rostro and 3 other drone Pilots to come to the unit. Um, from then on the the program took off uh, or like I said, originally we wanted to maybe just supplement some of the other units out there where crime scene reconstruction but we had a law in place the drones as first responder act from Illinois. So this legislation They have restrictions and now these restrictions allowed us to do a lot more. And I'm going to let uh Sergeant Marcus Penrose. Take over from here and he could talk about what we decided to do and what we've been doing. And our success stories that we've had. And again, what we think about the future, Yes. Well, first off, thank you very much for uh having me here today, having us here today. It is uh, Truly, uh, a great honor. And highlight of my career, my 28-year career as a police officer. Um so thank you, thank you for the icing on that cake. Um As Captain uh talked about um we we found that what we we we realized right away that there was a lot of uh uses for drones. Um it it truly is a future of law enforcement. Um, for many reasons, uh, 1 being the cost, It's relatively low entry. And the benefits are essentially uh unlimited. Um, number 1 we we ultimately the number 1 thing is obviously, we're we're providing a faster and better service to the citizens of Chicago. And for us that's huge that that excites us to be able to do that. Um, and the other thing is really we're giving our officers on the street uh, a much safer. uh, work environment and uh, having that knowledge of what their walking into actually is, uh, we've seen Nationwide numbers, where 50% of use of force incidents are, are, are decreasing 50% of use of force incidents. um, officers going into situations, we act, as OverWatch, we respond to, uh, several uses we have about 10 different uses that we're allowed to, uh, use drones by law. Um, the uh the biggest 1 is for, you know, you know, uh the terrorism threat of of a terrorism for search warrants, uh, search and rescue. Um missing persons, um and and the larger 1 is for Pap which is any 911 call. Um, That, uh, out there to assist the officers that are responding to that. And also special events. Uh, we utilize these for obviously TNC. Um, we've learned a lot in the course of putting this program together. Um but what the main thing that we learned is that everybody that's involved with it for our Command Staff has really found it as a uh a a valuable tool for their decision-making process. Uh, having information that, uh, utilizing the Drone to, to see, uh, various, uh, obstacles and and, and, uh, events, uh, has has really made us a more efficient, as a police department, uh, for our response. uh so laying in the background of what we've done, we we made sure that we integrated everything with our current uh, processes that we have in our current programs that we have. Obviously, we use uh, axon for our body camera. So it was a really important that we integrated the drones into those uh current technologies that we have. Um so we we've been successful in doing that. We also are working integrated into genetech. uh, so that the the Drone feed Uh, that's out. There can be viewed by our sdsc rooms in the various, uh, districts. Um, and that gives the, uh, the watch commanders and the commanders that are there with any type of events that happen, uh, real situational awareness awareness of of of uh, what's occurring in their districts and they're able to easily deploy, you know, the officers to the, you know, the appropriate force that that that's needed for the particular uh issues. Uh currently we have 3 Pilots. Uh they are all 107 Pilots. We, we have to abide by several different things. Uh, we Uh, we util, we are licensed, uh, 107 pilots and that's through the FAA, and we have to abide by all the, the, the rules and regulations that, that that go along with that. And we're also been granted a uh, a certificate of authority to fly which is a KOA and that allows us to uh, to fly also. So we we require our Pilots that are going to be piloting uh, to have to have the 1 77 license. And we're also covered under our, our KOA Uh, for flying. Current capabilities. Are we for a special events? Um, we've seen a lot of incidents that occurred. I think that the, the law changed really for us with, with the instead occurred in Highland Park Where they did their after action report. And they actually saw that if they would have had a drone to utilize to Search rooftops that, that, that could have been avoided. Um, and we've already had success stories. Uh, we utilized the drone at la, la la, la la la laaa. And there was many calls of people that were sitting on rooftops. And, and everybody's in a heightened state of awareness over these type of possible threats. So, we received a lot of of calls. Our our action is, if, if you see something, say something to the public we've been preaching that. And, and, and, and they have they, they've called about people sitting on rooftops. And essentially, we are able to use the Drone to, to scan the rooftop and we've done. We, we were able to go to a 30 5-story building in a matter of 2 minutes. Uh, the SWAT team also responded and it took them a little bit longer to get to get there because of the challenges of getting up 35 then doing the search of the roof but working together with them. Um, we saved a significant amount of time uh, in in accomplishing those those type of things but also providing the service for the the the citizens that are there having having that situation, awareness of what was going on. Uh we we've also uh deployed on uh occasions where assistance to other officers or calls for help. Um and we we see like nah nationally speaking. There, there's also a cost-savings that's that's associated with with having the drones. Um, there's a 50% decrease in use of force lawsuits. Um, a lot of that is because officers going into these situations, they they, they don't know what they're walking into. So they're at a heightened level of of, of concern. And uh, having that situation awareness where we can tell them or they can even view from their phones, a live stream of what they're walking into what they're walking into. It sometimes there's a person with a gun called that they get. So they're at that level. And if we utilize the Drone, and we're able to see that, that's not a, a gun, it's a cell phone, or it's a, it's a, you know, another object, that was maybe misunderstood as having a weapon, um, that that decreases their the way they're, they're going to respond to that. and so we see nationally that that's the use of drones really does uh decrease these use of force incidents and also we're able to clear 30% of the jobs that are are out there. Uh, 1 of the biggest things that we're we're having here is, is with, uh, you know, our Workforce being, uh, lower with and, and, and the struggles that we have with recruiting, uh, new officers Uh this is is really a force multiple uh we're able to utilize it and uh and cover a lot more area than any patrol car. Can we do it with zero emissions? Um and and we do it with no officers uh utilize their uh no nobody getting injured and no complaints. um, but the biggest thing is that being able to respond and give the citizens, that, that service that they deserve is, is, uh, exciting for us. Uh, there's a lot of calls that are lower on the spectrum of of response and and officers have to Really respond to that prior the the higher, the higher priority calls, and really what the Drone does is it could be utilized to respond to those lower priority calls. Uh, many times, we we have instances where somebody's calling for a specific reason. And there's nobody there officer has to start the car up, drive the location. Uh, look around and come up with the same conclusion that we can come up with in a matter of a few minutes. Um, so really what it does is it gives them the ability to respond to higher, uh, priority calls. And it's it's a it's a much better effective uh uh use. Uh, with with our new technology that we have. And and really, this is the future of policing. I mean We look at uh, where we are versus other departments in in the nation here. So we have 5 drones and and we're proud of those 5 drones. I, I, I, I, I look at them. I clean them every day. And I, I'm proud of them. But New York has 55 drones and 56 Pilots. And Los Angeles County has over 22, drones, and San Diego has, you know, 47 drones a state. Police has 75 drones. So we're a little behind on on, on the curb of that and you know Chicago is a is a is a greatest City. Really in a nation. And for technology, we're not as advanced with some of the things that we can be with the police department and this, uh, tool really would put us in a in a much uh different Prospect. Uh, the future really for drones is uh, The vision really is that at some point with drone. As first responder the, the hope would be to place a pod, or a hive on every police station, uh, throughout the city, and then have that tied into our CAD system. And then we decide determine which calls those, those drones will respond to When the Call Comes Out. The Drone will automatically deploy to those calls within under 2 minutes. Uh, having that ability and really giving the officers that are responding, you know that Insight is, is a game changer for, for, for our department. And and Not only would it it's going to help in recruiting other officers to the job. I, I think that the technology Avenue of it, we've seen the difficulties in recruiting, uh, officers and this is another tool that we can utilize to show that. We are our tech tech technology is, is our Forefront. Uh, we're a leader. We want to be a leader in, in, in the nation. And, uh, having uh, young people, see, throughout the city that this is a career opportunity for them to be a pilot for the Chicago Police Department flying a drone. That's exciting. Um, so there's there's a lot of avenues almost more than I could. I can probably sit here and take time to to explain. um, but I would like to, uh, turn it over to skydio, we have skydio reps that are here and they can really talk on the technology and uh some of the the uh the the future that they have uh and the abilities that they have, if that's uh allowable Sergeant, can you um, identify yourself for the record and then Sergeant Orlando as well? Yes. Yeah uh Sergeant Marcus pain. Rostro I'm a assigned to special functions. Uh division out of uh Bureau of counterterrorism. Thank you. Hi, I'm Sergeant Orlando uh out of the legal uh Affairs division. Um, Captain Carl hi. Can I just uh speak on 1? A topic of some of our success stories before we go to Scotty. So you guys have understanding of what we currently have done. Uh, so for uh, NASCAR NASCAR. We were uh we are our program was was up and running in June. Uh, it took a lot of work. We worked with uh uh our our 911 call center to create codes, right? So they know that when we're deploying. So all that, all that information could be tracked for us, right? We right? We have a, a 4 facing website that we can pull out of that data from and can give the public an idea of when uh, the drones are flying and for what purpose. Um, so transparency. Um, so once that, uh, everything was in place in June, we started flying, uh, NASCAR. Well, first of all, we had, uh, the pride parade, uh, the pride parade, we had an incident when the The parade was stopped our decision makers. There was no cameras in that area unfortunately. Um so our drones were able to even those peaceful it was able to give our decision makers uh on the ground what was happening. So they could deploy assets or whether or not to deploy assets. Um, so it was a very helpful tool helpful in the aftermath of, uh, the pride parade. Uh, we had a lot of police officers out there, where do we deploy them? How do we deploy them? Um, so that was extremely helpful, NASCAR. Uh, we had an incident where the couple individuals, uh, uh, uh, decide to protest, jumped over the fence and, uh, changed themselves to the uh, to the uh, the large fencing around the track. Uh, there was at the start of the race. I was at the start of the race, uh, with all our, our our, our supervisors, our Command Staff, along with NASCAR officials, We had no idea what was going on. I'm like yes, we do. Hold on, you know every time we deploy a drone for anything we could we could deploy a link. At through an email, all the bosses can just click on that link and they can see what's happening on that drone. So now, if you guys remember NASCAR, it's very, if you're in 1 area, it's hard to get to 1 area or the other. Now, they didn't have to worry about that, they didn't have to worry about, getting to the scene. They were watching everything from, uh, from the phone. Um is extremely helpful, La palooza extremely helpful. Obviously a lot of phone. Thefts, we worked on our intelligence sections, uh, to over a little bit OverWatch protecting the officers. It's very hard to, to locate these individuals in the crowd. They're able to help them and, uh, catch some of these, uh, people who are stealing their phones from the kids um DNC extremely extremely, uh, again. Um, I was in the OC had the pleasure of being in the OC over at oemc and uh had the drones up and decision makers were in that room. How do we deploy? Where do we deploy? They're able to make those decisions based on some of the, the views that the cameras, uh, the the drones are providing Um, it was kind of funny because if you look on a podcast camera from the angles, it might look like the crowd was larger, but you look from a drone, it wasn't as large. So now we don't have to deploy as many officers as as we thought we would have to a certain area, and they had to contained. um, A a very big successful 1 was uh I believe it was Area, 1 had a robbery pattern. uh, of The markets place from Facebook Marketplace about 30, uh, individuals or 30 cases or or, uh, of robberies had taken place, uh, in the city of Chicago. So, basically what these guys were doing is that they were uh uh, advertising on Marketplace to sell their uh, bikes for about 3, thousand dollars off-road bikes. They were set up these meetings at random uh, locations and Um we knew what those locations were uh and they would lure lure these people. These people usually came in from Wisconsin or Indiana. And so again, the detectives were having a hard time piecing this together because out of state victims. Uh, these people were masked up but in a few of these cases, they were, uh, somebody was shot and, uh, Firearms were definitely produced and most of the instance was violent offenders. Um, they're able to uh get an individual who was cooperating, and they were able to set up a meet with these indiv uh robbery fenders. So they were concerned about how to go about it in a safe manner so that nobody would get hurt, not only police officers but uh, and nobody would there be no officer involved, shootings. So they got all the special functions together with our SWAT team at helicopter, um, and uh, with the assistance of the detective vision and some of the, the the, the district, uh, officers in the, in the, in the uh, affected districts. Uh, we came up with a plan. And 1 of the plans was with the drones as well. We had the drones over that area an hour before we saw these individuals. Come now every SWAT officer in their Bearcat, approaching knew exactly what they were looking for. There was they knew what the guys looked like. Um you know we were going to take our time. There was no rush we had things in place. Um sure enough uh the Bearcats approached uh even before that, the the drones were able to pick up this individual masking up, pulling out his firearm getting ready to do the robberies and uh without that video, there would not have been a successful. Uh case with the State's Attorneys, it's still in litigation litigation right now. Um but it was an instrumental in uh clearing up a lot of those robberies. So those are some of the success stories that we've had. Um and uh yeah, we're looking forward to a lot more uh again uh drones are are the future of the technology is amazing. Um and hopefully, you know, the department can uh and the City of Chicago and and the citizens, we can utilize it to help everybody in the city. So with that, I'm sorry. Uh, just some of the stories I wanted to share with everybody and, uh, I can turn over to Scotty if you would like so uh, 1 1, second, uh, Captain. So um, we do have been hush from skydio. That's uh, going to be on the zoom, however, I'm told that we have, we had a video presentation, um, that showed the CPD drone in action along with the helicopters. However, I'm also told that because there are pending cases and those cases haven't been settled yet that laws recommending that we don't show those videos. So we're not going to show the video however at some point. Once those cases have concluded, it's our hope that the Law Department would free these up. So that way the city council as well as the public can kind of kind of take a look at how Technologies evolving and dealing with Public Safety in in a in a very safe manner. So uh Ben is here to to answer any questions from the members of the city council. However, the video presentation because there are pending cases, law has recommended that we don't show them at this time. So are there any questions from members of the committee? Um, Alderman. Napolitano Thank you, chairman. Uh, I think this is great technology. I I've got a bunch of questions. Um, hopefully just simple ones too. Uh, as far the last question, I asked the sergeant that was here from Oakbrook. I think it was uh, weatherwise. Um, are these things operable in in, you know, our Midwest type of weather snow or rain Yeah, if I could so. That's 1 of the biggest things that we looked at when we were looking at what manufacturers are out there. And so, typically for a a flight with, uh, a drone battery, we get about 30 minutes of flight time. And and so we have not experienced using those in the temperature changes, but the company, uh, says that the the it doesn't degrade too much. Uh, you're always going to see a little bit of a loss, um, but it will still function and it still will fly and colder temperatures. Um, we've flown in and and Rain, uh, light rain and, uh, and high winds. So it, it's capable of handling what Chicago can throw at it up until now, we've been very successful with that cool. Um, As far as Pilots um, are these all Chicago police officers a a pilot or there's a civilian uh, aspect to that as well. Yeah, so currently we are utilizing Chicago police officers as 107 pilots and that that's their sole role and that's the professional as a drone pilot operator. and if we create, um, When you say Hive and a district is that a um, is that a single drone or is that is that multiple drones for that? So there would be an analysis that would be done and and it it it turns, it comes down to how fast you want a drone to respond to a job. And what kind of geographical area you're looking at? So, typically for 1 high, you would have 1 drone that's in that Hive and that is it would charge that drone. It would keep it at the ready. Um, it would keep it shielded from the cold and the wind and the rain and then it it automatically would open. And and, and would allow the Drone to deploy from there. Um, and there's also capabilities, actually, that have uh, remote piloting options. So that we can have a, a, a system set up where our Pilots are going to be stationed in uh, in a, in a office setting flying. From anywhere in the city if they needed to um, multiple drones at some point. Once we we get the uh, waivers that are required from the FAA, uh, we'll work strongly with those Partners, uh, and we would be able to secure a waiver that would allow us to do, you know, multiple drones and uh, visual line of sight. Uh, Flights. uh, that 1 pilot be able to fly um, couple more quick questions. Camera capabilities is this have you have the ability to to zoom in to like uh to read license plates and stuff like that from certain distances or yeah? Absolutely. So the cameras, the cameras that these that these uh, drones that we use are are the best that are available. Um, I probably will get it wrong, but I want to to say, the magnification on, it is upwards of 200 and 240 zoom on it. We, we have thermal capabilities, which has been really helpful when we're responding with SWAT. Um, for some of the OverWatch, on their search warrants or their, uh, issues, uh, for missing persons, uh, for people that might be missing in, in the water. Uh, it it shows their the Heat Signature. Um, so they do they have the thermal capabilities and they have a, a great Zoom capability on them. Um, does this pilot have capabilities to relay? Um, Chase directions. Like are they able to come on the radio and say, hey make a right down the alley and to go through dispatch, um, or or is it, would it be that pilot on? On the on the zone or would they be relaying through dispatch? Yeah, so it would be the pilot, the pilot. We, we would switch over to that zone and we would operate very similar to how to helicopter operates. We would give them what our prospective is, what, we're seeing directional flight the street that they're on, um, and and all that information. Um, and we can we could even really relay that information to responding officers with the with the streaming link so that they could view it themselves. Gotcha. Uh, 2 more quick questions. Uh, Is there any restrictions? You may have answered this and I apologize. Um, uh I I I'm a an airport award uh, and there's probably another couple on the south side. Is there restrictions as far as uh drones flying within so many. Feet miles or whatever from a like O'Hare or Midway. Um, would it be able to be utilized in like the 16th District? Or I think that'd be the 9th District or right? Yeah. So, typically there's different are spaces that are in place for drones helicopters and thick, swing aircraft. Um for us the the sealing really is 400 feet that we are flying at with the Drone uh around the airport that does go down. Um but it can still be utilized um within those areas. It's just not at that height that we would be able to fly at And what are we looking at as like say cost per Hive is that something that you know offhand or you that I can refer? I refer? I would refer to the skydio representatives for the pricing options. Okay well wait, wait for that 1 or yeah. Hey um uh, been Kevin, do you want to answer that question from Alderman Napolitano? Certainly. Uh, thanks. Thank you everyone on the committee and CBD for having us join today. Um, relative to cost. Um, there obviously are things to consider, um, as we think about scale. Um you know, I I wouldn't want to commit to a a pricing conversation at this point, um, you know, CPD has the drones in house. That's a historical purchase that we'd be happy to review the price that was Associated for that, um, but just not knowing the scope of the project for the city of Chicago yet, it wouldn't be advised to make a pricing consideration right now. Okay. Understandable. Um, Chairman, I just want to say I'm extremely excited about this. Uh, I think that If you haven't been watching TV in the last 2 or 3 years or been living, underneath the rock that, you know, that these drones are the wave of the future. Uh, if we're not If we're not riding this wave, we're going to be left behind. Um, I think that this could be an incredible part of the open air drug Market that that plagues our city, um, as well as chop shops as well as, um, gang territories. As well as, I mean, you name it. I, I can't get a camera put up on my my award for the last 3 or 4 years. If I can get a drone that can help us where we're missing, uh, Um police resources especially on the northwest side, when they're taking and putting other places, I'm all in favor for for any type of new technology, I think this is incredible. I think that you guys are on the tip of the spear um for where this is all going, not just hopefully in the city, but across the country and throughout the entire world. Um, I I like I said, I think we need to be a part of this, whatever we need to do to be a part of um modernizing our Technologies, the city of Chicago. We got to be on board or we're going to be left behind. Thank you chairman, thank you very much. uh thank you answered 1 of my questions and that's about the when the heavy winds don't really affect the drones because those things are so light I find it hard to believe a 3040 mph, wind wouldn't affect Anything. Yeah, so the technology that these drones have they they have sensors that are built in. It's very similar. Uh, it's it's like a smart vehicle. Essentially it, it feels the wind and it counters that by using utilizing the, the, the props to keep it steady. Um, and, and they're, and they're relatively fine up to 30 miles per hour with the manufacturer recommends. Um, we we've had it in that type of environment, with, with no ill effect and and it was stable and and minor integration on the battery. Okay, so this is more for surveillance, right? So police aren't in a police chase, they don't call headquarters and say, hey, I'm at State and Madison get a drone up, right away. It's more of like a surveillance for crime. Yeah, I I wouldn't say it was specifically just for that the uses are are many good. Uh, what that's 1 of the uses that we could utilize them for. Um, but ultimately really what it is, is giving the officers that on the ground. That that OverWatch view of of any situational uh events that that they need to be advised of, um, and that can include descriptions of offenders that were wanted for crimes. Um, um, but it can also include finding, you know, missing people, uh, locating. We, we've had pretty much every success that we can have. We we, we were a part of helping locate a, a, a, a 14-year-old, uh, boy that was lost, um, with the drones because the, the amount of, you know, geographical area that the drones can cover is far greater than, than any, you know, 2 Men on foot, or a bike or, or a vehicle. Um, so we covered a large area and, and, and have successes with those and and that type of stuff. So, the uses are are great. Uh, many different uses. All right, thanks. Yeah, every little bit helps, I think chipping away at crime. So appreciate you guys coming out. Thank you, chairman. Thank you all the mitzvot. Um, next Alderman Moore. Thank you, chairman and thank you all so much. Um, For the presentation and as all my other colleagues stated any tool, um, that can, um, help deter crime, any technology tool is helpful. And so, um, there so far, I have not seen and I think you all agree. There's no 1 tool that's going to solve all crimes. So every piece of um, technology that we can use can help, um, give in the, um, increase in, um, especially um, robberies and um, Other crimes that are happening throughout our our community, um, can help um, couple of questions. Um, Scotty O was was that a uh Well, they just selected based on something. We're just going to uh, uh, try or the other companies out there. Why did we choose Scotty? Oh, and and not that, it's a bad thing. I just want to know why. Yeah, uh, 1 of the biggest things was, is American make company. And American made. Okay, make company. Uh, second of all, they worked with Axon. Uh which was a seamless transition to be able to or documenting purposes, uh, to store everything we work with axon for our body warn cameras, and that's a huge. Uh, what you call in a do, I'm sorry. You said what de son? I can. I I'm sorry, axon. Okay, axon, uh, the our body worn cameras. Okay. So we already have a, a, a robust body worn camera uh uh, purchased with axon and we use axon for our retention. All our video, uh, is on, is on their cloud and, um, and they, uh, had a great Community, uh, relations uh, Department, uh, that would be able to work with us and the citizens of Chicago to Give an idea of what was happening. Um, and but more importantly, they they, they they they did They were a great team member. So they worked with us and they assisted us with a lot of our questions. Um, a lot of the connections that they, they made with other law enforcement agencies across the country as well. Um, but we're still looking at other companies also, there's usage for, uh, this is not just 1 company. Uh, we're looking, uh, currently looking for something specifically for our SWAT team for indoor use. So we're not adhered uh, to because every drone could do other things, right. Um, but right now, They've been instrumental in helping us get here and they've been a great partner. So, um, you know, they check a lot of the boxes for the city. Um, when we made this decisions, decisions, uh, there was many, uh, decision makers in the room. It wasn't just my decision, uh, uh, who to go with, but they did. Everybody was pretty impressed with, uh, they their capabilities, not only in our technology, but as a company, as a whole Katherine, I I let me also say I appreciate you taking on this and and you're stating that hey, you really didn't have any, uh, technology, um, background or anything like that strong in any way. But you took on this, I, I, I commend you for that, but with that said, um, I remember, I don't know if he was a sergeant at the time. I think he was Sergeant lewen. You all remember, Sergeant Luen, I think he went ended up going to Boston or something. I can't remember where he went, but he he was real versed in. Like that was his thing do, who was that person at? Um, see, uh, at CPD, that that Luan? If we have 1 and I again I appreciate what you have done and if you've taken it and run with it, which, you know, many people could not have done, but who is that person? Now the sergeant Ben Rosso said in writing me right as of at this moment. Um, yeah, here's a firm handle on the technology. He's immersed himself with it. Um, and he's, uh, yeah, he's knows what he's talking about. okay, did you did you have a, um, I'm Sergeant. Did you have a background in technology or you just? And and again, you could be self-taught and even be better than people who went to school and I just want, I'm just trying to get you back. Yeah, my my background was in law enforcement. And uh, as I 28 years as a police officer, um, I'm sorry. can you repeat that? I'm sorry, my background is in law enforcement. Um, I've been a police officer now for 28 years. Uh and so I've always been fascinated by technology and, and really what it can do for for not only the police department, but just really for our city. And, and, and aiding and, and ultimately just giving a better service to this to Citizens. So, yeah, I've always been fascinated by it, uh, drones in particular, um, and the capabilities that are out there. Um, fascinate me. Uh, you know, for example, New York currently has a drone that they use for Beach patrols and it's got the capability of of of identifying someone who's in in in uh distress a swimmer in distress And it actually can deploy a life preserver to that person remotely. And so the capabilities of things like that really excite me to have that, um, you know, in a in a situation where we're providing a service and and saving someone's life, And and not having the ability to do that prior to this technology. That's that's exciting to be able to have that. Thank you, Captain. I would like to like to add our 3 Pilots. Uh, we are very fortunate. 1 of them is actually a professional drone pilot, where he competes. Um, I don't know if you saw it on on some of the ESPN or anything like that, where they go through the obstacle courses, he's actually 1 of, he's very well-versed, very professional. Um 1 of them. Does it for the military and 1 of them was a a recreational. So we you know obviously as This hopefully, this program expands, we're probably find a lot more officers who are going to be well-versed, that hopefully will be able to come and assist us and and continue with this project in the future. And with that said, if we're looking at a sum cost and I I definitely want, um, CPD to be involved. But if they have some opportunity, do you think civilians can do this? If they have that background or do you have any reason why you think, you know, we couldn't hire some civilians as Pilots as well. Oh, what would be your concerns or if there's not any concerns? Yeah, I, I think I'll defer it over to my, uh, legal Sergeant over here, uh, Sergeant or Yeah, you got good morning or good afternoon. Um, It would be possible, use civilians. But then when we get into the actual investigation and we go to the criminal uh, investigation criminal trial, that civilian would be called called to testify probably. So we run into issues like that. I think it can be done. Um, we would have to we'd also look at the other municipalities uh bigger uh cities like New York and stuff, and they may do that already. We just don't know yet. Um, but I don't think it would be an issue, but yeah, it would be something to look at. So, uh, we don't have a uh, law enforcement officer down running the Drone program, okay? And you Answer 1 of my questions I had on there and that was about the 50 Cent of the decrease and, um, use of force. And, and you explained that uh, very well because you're able to see, um, you know, what's going on and instead of like and you gave examples. So I appreciate that. Uh, that was 1 of my questions. Now, my other question was, in relation to the situation with the, with these off, off-road vehicles, that was being, um, sold. So because what I've heard, most until I heard that was it was being probably used mostly in crowds. Let us see if we got an event going on the event, we're sending to event, but then you got into what I wanted to get into the more, you know, stuff that impact communities, like, mine where, um, um, crime is taking place. So you're looking, you, you will deploy them where there's patterns of crime. What about where they're where there's um, you know, constant, you know, um, drug activity or anything like that? What are your thoughts on that and how effective do you think that would be, especially given the fact that they only last? I mean, what 30 minute, you said, battery life, and I'm sure it may increase in the future. Yes. Uh, so right now obviously we have the Illinois Law which dictates when we can deploy those drones and we're hearing to those to those laws. So there has to be some type of predicate in order for us to to go up. We've, we've turned down many different units since we've been, uh, running. Because we can't deploy like we could not deploy a drone for our UC or to go into undercover by right. We we can't do that at this point because of Illinois law that is correct, right? And so again, our goal is to make sure that we build the foundation for success for the future. And we don't want to uh derail this program in any way. So we're strictly adhering to the law when we have a Pre-planned event. Uh, these guys are out there. Putting up signs 24 hours of notice in advance to let the public know that they'll be drone deployed. Um, when it's uh, not a pre-planned event uh if a 901 is called place or some some some type of uh nefarious activity is uh conducted then we can deploy the drones. Um, it's in the law. I I could read them to you. Um. Uh. I have there's 10 of them. I just need a copy. Yeah, I was gonna ask you to provide it to the chair. It's, it's in the Drone first responder active uh uh, of when we can can and cannot fly if you can provide that to the chair so I can have a copy of that. Okay, but just in case there are some things we need to be advocating um for um yeah. So if if we're on the record if you'd like the it's a drones as first responder act 725 ilcs 167. Okay? Yep. But we are um we'll have About it. Now, the next, um, the next thing is. So we said the number of people we have right now we're just we have 5 drones and and how many people so we have 5 drones 1 sergeant and 3 officers 1 sergeant and 3 officers and based on what we're doing now. Uh what would you say is your need? Now if we were in budget season which we're going to be coming up soon, you're like, hey, for us to be able to really be effective or even more effective. This is my, this will be my request today. Yes. Uh, so right now, we, we were able to put these guys into special functions, so they don't even have a budget line. There's not even a unit number associated with them. So we need to create that. With that being said, uh, we would like a minimum of 12 officers, uh, to run this program. That would be able to then uh, 2 watches, uh, both second and third. Watch, uh, likely uh, with the all out for midnights. Um, I think that would at at the rate that we're going, I think that will be the minimum that we would need, uh, to make sure that this program is run successfully. Um, we don't want to get too big or or or write right away. We would like again uh as a Jones first responder, we would like to Pilot that right to see how that uh would work and how that would look. Um, other departments are running it differently. Like I said, they have uh, drones in their control cars, right? And they deployed from when they respond to calls. That'll work for them but we don't believe we believe that this is the right. Uh, Kind of that, like, what New York is doing with their drone program right now. Um, it's uh, yeah, it's pretty successful though there. And so we're trying to, uh, You know, utilize what we're learning from other departments from across the country. And I don't know if this would be for legal for you captain and it's my final question chairman. Um, using these drones with or Hazard, or do you think it can free up more officers, um, on the street giving a shortage, um, that we have, we believe it, well, with the Drone, first responder program and be able to answer 911 calls. Obviously, there's certain 911 calls that we would be able to answer to, and certain ones. We could not right and we couldn't call them out, but we, we believe that, uh, some of these drones might be able to assist with that. Um, you know, so 1 of the, we had the pleasure of, of going to a conference and we talked to, uh, Asheville North Carolina, um, and they would deploy their drones. And 1 thing that they did is that uh, a lot of times, you know, uh the community members when they call 911, they don't see a police car in front of their house and they wonder what happened to the job and they're unhappy with the service because they think that police didn't show up. Uh 1 of the things that the Drone did was that they flew over that location. They actually called the called the person and say, hey look up, I'm actually here, right? So there's that interaction with, with the public, uh, to make sure that they know that, hey, there's something still being done about the problems that they might be seeing Thank you. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Uh, Alderman Moore. Alderman, wages back. Thank you chairman. Um, and thank you all 3 of you for being here today. I know it's, uh, I think it's been 10 years since we drafted the first drone ordinance. And a lot has changed since then, uh, globally with just the use, you know, and especially in the United States, I think with, uh, the development, uh, exponentially of the Of drones and their uses. So, I'm glad that you're all back into the game here and looking at how to improve the system that you have, uh, moving forward as opposed to what we had just a few years ago. Um, and just a couple of quick questions. Um, you know, just looking at skydio and what they have to offer, you know, obviously there's uh there's a lot of other issues with that but we can get into that some other time. Um, Does your unit also track and monitor violations and the types of violations that take place around the city. For instance, if somebody uh flies 1 by a school, a playground or airport. Yeah. Yeah. So that that that is actually 1 of the, that that could be a unit on its own. That's, that's a very a big thing right now. Is unauthorized drones, right? Um, and that's part of what we've taken on our for our unit people. Every day we get our 911 calls that all, uh, took place during the 24-hour period that involved drones. Um, and so we do follow up on that. We uh many time we've had drones that showed up at the airport on the LA on the Airfield. Uh We've have drones that showed up in the central business district that you that, you know, we're on top of rooftops or hit a building. Um, so we do follow up on that. We have our partners with the FAA and we, you know, do everything that we can to assist in their investigations. Um, we also do have a thing called a TFR, which is a temporary flight restriction during certain events. Uh, that's part of what we do is, it's counter uas. Um, Locating. These drones that are not supposed to be there for these particular events and we do everything we can to locate those Pilots uh and get all the, all the information information that we can do and cite them with the coordinates to what we can do as a as a municipality. Uh, but then we also forward that over to the FAA and they do, uh, uh, you know, greater, uh, finding of those type of things and most, uh, drones now have an RFID, right? So you can, um, in a way, possibly track some of those, if you can get that RFID. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So there there's the remote ID that's, that's mandated, um, for all drones, uh, there's some manufacturers that make it a little easier for people to get around that, um, but we're we're we We There is, uh, specific software that's available at that detects the actual RF signal. That's a consistent with what would be a drone and a drone controller and that's how we're able to locate some of these, uh, individuals that are, uh, In on unauthorized areas. Okay. Which um, which skydio are you utilizing now? You, we, we currently use the, uh, skydio x10s. Uh, so skydio does not make a consumer drone. They only they, they only manufacture drones for law enforcement and for military. Yeah. Uh, and government use. So there these are drones that are not capable to the public. It's only for our use. um, and then finally, um, as you're kind of building this up and you're thinking through, you've talked about counterterrorism and different uh issues that you run into you know, when when you have uh uh, unauthorized flights around airports, extremely dangerous, um, what are you setting aside in terms of a plan or creating a plan? And then setting aside funds for uh, counterterrorism or counter drone use because as we've seen, drone use grow exponentially in every theater in the world, you know, different ones that hopefully we don't have to utilize, but, um, the use of counter drone Technologies is also increasing. So, are you looking at investing in that as well? Yeah, so currently we don't, we don't have we're we're relying on our Partnerships that we have with the the our other law enforcement agencies like the state police oemc, uh, their capabilities. Uh, we we not just to sorry to interrupt you but if you could take that further too, the other question I had was just other agencies adjacent to the city like say, you know, we heard from Oakbrook and um on their technology. But something different like uh Evanston as well, where we have people, you know, uh dying in the lake um and you guys are searching for them. Yes. Yeah, so specifically for the, the counter, uh, drone measures that we have. Uh, we, we utilize, like, like I said, the partners that we have, we don't currently have a budget. So, we're we're kind of bootstrapped a little bit, you know, we we do everything we can. Um we've we've done a lot of things with trial type of uh events um where we're we're we're getting these gratus for temporary use. Um, we're we're developing the knowledge. Um, and so we're hoping that this budget season that we can really uh put something together where it can, it could cover those type of things. Um, because it is a growing field and, and it's like I said, it's it's, it could be a a unit on its own, it's that, uh, prevalent throughout the city. If I could just, uh, expound upon that. Um, so oh, AMC has got a, a lot of programs. So we partner up with them in Illinois, State Police and a lot of these major events. Uh, we have a great working relationship. Um, we just didn't have after action report for a lot of the Blues. I think there was like, 56 on on, uh, the drones that were detected over the, the 4-day period. Um, but, but for the first time there was able to be interdiction, it was because of these guys. Uh, so we were able to have dedicated people know the law, know what, they can sign them for. You know, a lot of times you know in years past we would just put it over the radio and officers on the street are you know, they're specific to their assigned to their jobs. So not really looking for where the pilot is, right. But now these guys are able to kind of go around mitigate it, um, document them, stop them, aside them and then everything is for today. So it's been pretty very Successful. But it's also because of the Partnerships that we have, uh, Illinois, State Police, and especially oemc. Excellent. Uh, thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Thank you Alderman waguespack. Uh, we have an online Um, Alderman Vasquez. Thank you very much. Um, I appreciate this. Uh, I do understand the concerns and why some of our colleagues were being inclined to support an increase in drone technology. Uh, I do as as many folks have had for years, how concerned about drones and how they're used and cameras and everything. So what how are you tracking patterns movements usage? How is that reported out? Yeah. So first off, we, we we take, we take this very seriously, as far as the concerns that the public has, um, there there's, there's no way that we would want to violate anybody's, uh, First and foremost, right? So at all with any any of these type of, of, uh, uh, tools that we have. Anytime there's a reasonable expectation of privacy, we do not utilize these drones. Uh, we only use drones in uh, in in public settings on public streets and uh, and and city streets open areas, um, that there is, you know, no expectation of privacy. Anytime that we need to, if, if we had to fly, um, that was over. Somebody's property, we would be required to get a search warrant. Um, so we are required by law to report, all these uh, flights. And uh rather if we took video, if we if we retained it, we have a retainment uh, policy that's in place. Um and we have to report that yearly. Uh so that's that's the measure that is used. Um and we we looked through every flight has to be approved. Uh, prior to use, to make sure that it it qualifies and that there's there, there's no violations. And that's really the measure that we take. So yeah, I appreciate that. And the intent can you do the chair provide? Any documentation on the policy? Uh, so we would have Clarity there. Um, I think, I think the challenge I have is, I don't doubt that you are taking it seriously, and have the best intent in using the technology that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone you use in the day, whether they be sunny employed or not is going to write. We've got other Without tracking technology, we have plenty of instances where folks who shouldn't be cops in the first place aren't following. The rules arm is using their their access to certain things. And so, in that tracking, do you track the actual like flight Paths of where it goes, is it just hey, a certain amount of time we've used it uh, to your point if, if it is retaining which recorded where is that stored? I think I just have a whole bunch of questions related to that just to make sure because You know. As it relates to, to CPD and the budget. There's a lot of things that are opaque right even to your point. Now, this isn't even a line item in the budget but the funding is there and has been used to purchase. So, I think for me, in the interest of public, you know, accountability just knowing that detail of tracking is is kind of where I'm trying to get get to yeah, I I I understand, and I, I want to make certain that we're clear that we it's extremely important for us to make certain that we earn the trust from the public and part of part of that is heavy documentation of all drone flights. Uh, there's metadata that's involved with that. Um, that's all available. We do not uh, take video and retain it. We have retainment policies unless there's a a crime that was committed and then we have to notify. We're required to notify the State's Attorney's office. Uh, there's a retainment policies that are in place. Everything's held what's called evidence.com, which is where our current body War. Camera videos are are stored, um, and so that's where, uh, all these videos would be, uh, archived there and then they're subject to the, the, uh, the, you know, expirations of of just like the regular policies that are in place. Um, We we also have uh what's what's called a forward facing website? So on on these forward this this website that's in development here. Uh, People would be able to log on and see, they just where the Drone has been, where it's been flying and for what the purpose of it was, um, and that's just another measure that wasn't required by us. Uh, but that's something that we wanted to ensure that we did because of the the to, to earn that trust from our citizens. Um, so that that's full, you know, full accountability and and and full exposure. Yeah, I really appreciate that. Alright, so going above and beyond what's being required. Um I guess it pertains to City because I know you have to turn it into like I'm Federal, right? They've got guidelines. But is it anything where like the office of Inspector General or the community Commission on public safety and accountability? How do they interact with some of this information just for accountability purposes? yeah, so so the the inspector General's office, we're we're subject to them and, and they would they audit it. Uh, if there was any, uh, discrepancies that came up, they, there's we're subject to audit on, on those things. Okay. Um, Thank you for that. I think, uh, I guess the other. Question when we're looking at the deficits that we're facing as far as the city, right? So 1.2 billion dollar deficit, when you're looking at the 2 cities, we're looking to see PD have a 2 billion dollar budget, and you're looking to get an increase to be able to cover some of this. Are there any conversations with where you might appropriate other things that you're not using as much as far as CPD to take some of those funds and say, hey you know what? We tried this out wasn't really as effective as we thought these funds could definitely be better. Used if we were going in this direction, like do any of those conversations happen? Yeah. So for my perspective, I I really only immerse myself with the with the drones and this technology that's available there. Um I I I'm I'm certain that there's there's uh technology that was used that failed. There wasn't up to the the the power of what we were hoping it would be. Um but to my knowledge I I only really have uh experience with the drones and trying to um push this program forward because of the the the the positives that it, it really does provide the city and the city. Sure no, I definitely appreciate that. I think, I think a lot of times, it's not even the work that you're doing in technology. Sometimes the city itself, doesn't even know what it wants to do, right? I think the conversation around shot spotter over time is showing there's a Evolution as to what it actually does compared to how it might have gotten sold which which is you know, it is what it is but I think there's a value in like emergency response. Just like I'm sure there's value in advocacy with the drones here. It's us as a city, identifying, here's what we wanted to do. Here's what's important to us. Here's how we measure its success. And so, um, I think the more we develop and move forward in this conversation, that would be definitely in the interest of every member here. So that we understand separate from the emotions of it. Like here's what it does, here's how it's registered and evidence. Here's how it's closed cases. Here's why we think it's a value. And so I think as we talked to all of this stuff it's always going to be in my interest and representing kind of our constituents that we have those kind of metrics and and process in place so people can understand why it's important and how it's how it's actually working. So um, thank you for the work you all do 2024, who knows when we get to robots out here, but this is crazy stuff to hear about. Uh but thank you and thank you. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you Alderman. Um, Sergeant you. Um, you did mention that there is an auditing process in place the Attorney General, you're supposed to submit on an annual basis. yeah, so if if we could reference that, uh, the the uh, you know, 725 ilcs 167, uh, freedom from drone, surveillance act, and in that specific law, it does, uh, determine that the IG is, is doing audits on these these programs and there's, uh, you know, ramifications if if a program is not following this, this, this law, Thank you, I appreciate that. uh, quick question, CPD has a capacity issue because the program in its infancy, Despite that what what's what's the scope for these drones? Um, and have they been ample? Results. And can you give some deep, can you give some examples? Some of our success stories. Is that what you're uh yes. Yeah, I think I, I spoke to that earlier. Um, again, it's uh, a lot of our Command Staff, um, and other agencies are very happy. Um, when a DNC was around, uh, we were 1 of the only drones that I think we were, the only drones that are able to give, uh, bird's eye view of of, of a lot of things. A lot even for the Secret Service. Uh, so we were assisting them. Uh, we're working very well with everybody. Um, yeah, from where I, you know, where we started with the program in in in september of 2020, I never thought we would be here. Um, you know it was to the credit of the team. Um, these guys have been very successful very dedicated. But following the law being transparent building for the future because this is bigger than us. Uh, we believe that this is going to be around for a while. Uh, so we want to make sure that we could build a strong Foundation just for the future. Thank you. Thank you. Captain any any other further questions from members of The Joint Committee? Alderman, wages back. No, I was just gonna have a point of information. We have I know we just canceled the shots Potter contract and I think that was about 8 million a year. Is that correct? Uh yes or 8 million through the end of this year. There's some funding there. So maybe we could utilize it to save some lives here as well. Thank you. Um, Sergeant, you did mention that this was federally funded. Um, grants are, are we still pursuing some other additional grants in order to try to beef up the, um, Beef up the program. And then once the grants have Made the initial procurement. Then, it's on us for the maintenance and stuff like that. Correct. Yeah. So, there, there are funds that are available government funds that are available. Uh, we would request, uh, funding from that. but with anything, there's no guarantees. Um, they're often utilized for other other, you know, options throughout the state. So, there there's not a guarantee with that, we would request it. Um, because there is, there is, you know, significant expense with, with the the software and, and the, and the, the storage of the doc, you know, the videos that would be retained. Um, so There is a cost with that, um, and then just the, uh, the batteries and the upkeep and all that minimal, it's very minimal. Um, nowhere near as expensive as a helicopter, but there's still an expense with it. Yep. So but we would, we would request that through through government grants, um, and we would be uh, hopeful that we can, you know, get uh awarded some of those those funds. Thank you. Thank you, sergeant. Any other questions from members of the committee? Um, let me just say it was a pleasure, uh, teaming up with um, Sherman Hopkins to talk about public safety and Technology. I do believe that. Technology is going to play a significant role in dealing with public safety. Especially as we are having a hard time getting focus on. But we also seen, I've seen, uh, videos of drones being utilized with the Chicago Fire Department, where there's actually a holes attached to the Drone that flies up to put out, uh, those, those fires. Um, so, there's, there's a good use and, uh, in technology around Public Safety, whether it's CPD or cfd. So, looking forward to supporting some of the initiatives that come out around technology. Um and with that Sherman Hopkins, you have any other questions or any comments? Yeah, uh, thank you, uh, Vice chair co-chair. Um, this is not a formal part of the RFI process that was recently announced by the mayor's office. Um, but I do believe that this committee this perhaps this joint committee has a role to play in that conversation going forward. This is important and you can tell by the questions uh the members of this joint committee want to remain engaged on the larger question of what technology is available, is it cost-effective? I'm sure we'll be having that conversation in the in the coming budget hearings as well. So uh, my goal is to, uh, provide the legislative branch with an entree into this larger, uh, framework that the mayor has laid out in the, uh, in the wake of the shot spotter controversy. Um, we have work to do here, you know, clearly our partners in law enforcement expect us to remain partners, and what they do. And this is 1 way that we can do it is identifying technology and finding the means to pay for it, uh, going forward. So that's our role, uh, and I appreciate everyone who came today, uh, to participate in that. Thank you. And with that, we'll look for a motion to adjourn. By alderwoman Lee all in favor. I I meeting at turn. Thank you.