Publicly available flight data has exposed the Los Angeles Police Department using its emergency drone programme to conduct aerial surveillance of anti-Trump and anti-ICE protests, raising urgent civil liberties questions about a tool the department pitched as a life-saving public safety resource.
Records analysed by software engineer and flight data researcher John Wiseman show the LAPD deployed its Drone as First Responder (DFR) fleet at least 31 times over a January anti-ICE demonstration and 32 times over the March 'No Kings' rally, with surveillance beginning hours before any dispersal order was issued.
