ºüÀêÊÓƵ sent the drone operator a cease-and-desist letter Tuesday morning. Read the latest coverage here.
ST. LOUIS — Some south city residents are demanding that City Hall do something to stop a private business from flying surveillance drones above their neighborhood later this month.
But the out-of-town businessman behind the effort said on Monday he won’t back down. And it’s not clear city officials can stop him.
Jomo Johnson, the CEO of SMS Novel, said his drone operators will abide by federal and local rules. But they plan on flying, starting Jan. 29.
“We’ll seek to practice our liberty to fly drones and take footage,†he said. “That’s our right.â€
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The declaration comes as Gravois Park neighbors plan to convene with their local aldermen and a top aide to the mayor on Tuesday night to discuss the matter further. And it marks an escalation of a dispute that came out of the blue last month, when Johnson’s company announced plans to run a two-week pilot program in late January aimed at deterring crime in gritty Gravois Park, touching off a fierce debate about surveillance and privacy rights.
Neighbors in Gravois Park, which sits west of Jefferson Avenue between Chippewa and Cherokee streets, have said they don’t want any part of SMS Novel’s plan for a new kind of neighborhood crime watch. They say having drones cruising over their homes and streets would constitute an Orwellian breach of their privacy. And they are disgusted by SMS Novel’s plans to sell drone coverage to anyone who wants it.
“We need action on this,†said Jake Lyonfields, a neighborhood resident and activist.
Johnson has cast the plan as a well-meaning effort to make people think twice before committing crimes in a neighborhood where nine people were killed last year.
He said his company is also working to give would-be offenders stage fright in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee, and hopes to expand the effort to other areas struggling with violence.
After a two-week trial period here, residents will be able to hire SMS Novel’s drone operators to provide footage on demand. The company’s website says users could have a drone walk their kids home from school or help with a creative project in addition to watching over crime-prone corners.
“We’re not trying to invade anyone’s privacy,†Johnson said in an interview. “Our goal is to alleviate suffering.â€
Neighbors are skeptical. Neighborhood association leaders say they weren’t consulted about the plan before it was announced and have struggled to get firm answers about what exactly it will entail. Others, like Colleen Smyth, just don’t think pointing more cameras at the neighborhood will help much. In fact, Smyth said, it’s going to make her feel worse.
“It feels like we’re an experiment,†she said. “And it’s really messed up. It’s crazy that people with money can just come in and try to make a buck off of us.â€
Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, whose 7th Ward includes part of the neighborhood, agrees. She told a group of residents at a meeting Sunday evening that she’s working on a bill to stop the plan.
Sonnier said she wants Johnson’s company and anyone else looking to follow in its footsteps to get a city business license and abide by rules meant to protect residents’ privacy. Drone operators would be required to get consent to film people more than 25 feet away from them and would have to get permission to fly over city-permitted events, like the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration on Gravois Park’s Cherokee Street border.
Operators would also have to stay away from emergency vehicles when their sirens are on, Sonnier said, so that arrests and medical emergencies aren’t being filmed.
Those provisions, however, may prompt legal challenges. The federal government controls drone operator licensing. And there is longstanding legal precedent supporting people’s right to photograph or film other people in public, in plain view.
Mickey Osterreicher, a lawyer for the National Press Photographers Association, said Monday that the provisions in Sonnier’s proposal sounded unconstitutional.
“If you’re out in public, you can be photographed or recorded,†Osterreicher said.
He has seen other communities try legislation similar to what Sonnier is pitching.
“All it’s going to do,†he said, “is cost the taxpayers a whole lot of money defending the lawsuit.â€