Pasadena Committee to Consider Rules Letting Residents Weigh In on Police Drones

The Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee meets Wednesday, Sept. 16, to decide whether to recommend rules that would let residents weigh in on police drones and energy-assisted breaching tools before the Pasadena Police Department adopts policies governing them.

The rules would write a step-by-step review process into the Community Police Oversight Commission’s own rulebook as Article XII. The committee cannot put them in place. It can forward a recommendation, and the City Council holds final authority over whether the rules take effect. If the Council approves them, the rules would guide future reviews.

The commission adopted the framework on June 11 by a 9-0 vote, with two members absent.

An ad hoc committee built the draft and presented it in April. Vice Chair Selina Ho and Commissioners Lawrence Lurvey, who led the group, Phillip Argento, Faisal Rashid and Paula Verrette wrote it. Anticipating that the department may acquire traffic-reconstruction drones, the committee made drones the test case. As of April, the department had expressed interest in unmanned aircraft systems but had not acquired drones or adopted a use policy, according to the memorandum accompanying the commission’s agenda item.

The commission’s priorities for drone use cover six areas: safety, privacy and civil liberties, the authorized purpose of deployments, evaluation and accountability, data security, and transparency and community benefit. Staff emailed the priorities to Chief Eugene Harris and department command staff on April 22. The same framework has since produced priorities for energy-assisted breaching and for artificial intelligence-assisted report writing.

The drone priorities took six months to develop. They include a ban on arming drones and a prohibition on equipping them with facial recognition or other biometric identification technology. In public comment to the commission, Humaira Afzal, a Pasadena resident in District 7, identified gaps in the draft. Among them were the absence of an explicit ban on drones carrying non-lethal weapons such as tasers or tear gas, and the absence of a clear prohibition on autonomous or artificial intelligence-driven deployment without human control. Afzal also sought tighter limits on drone surveillance of constitutionally protected activity such as protests.

The oversight commission is strictly advisory, and its positions do not bind the Police Department or the City Council. Under Chapter 2.60 of the Pasadena Municipal Code, it reviews department operations and makes recommendations to the police chief, the city manager and the City Council.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Room S249, at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave. Residents can attend in person, join by video at cityofpasadena.net/cczoom, or call 1-669-900-6833 and enter Meeting ID 161 482 446. The meeting is also carried at www.pasadenamedia.org. Speaker cards are at www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/public-comment/, and comments are limited to three minutes.

The committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month. Its members are Chair Jess Rivas, Tyron Hampton, Justin Jones and Steve Madison.

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Pasadena City Hall Council Chamber, Room S249, 100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena. For more call (626) 744-7311 or visit www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/. The meeting is open to the public.