Drone proposals and policies (Department of Public Safety)

Katherine Fink filed this request with the Utah Department of Public Safety of Utah.
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Katherine Fink

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to Utah’s Government Records Access and Management Act (“GRAMA”), I hereby request the following records:

1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase, research of and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);
2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on the use of drones by police, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;
3. any departmental records concerning the use of and/or research of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:
a. the types of investigations or instances in which this department is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;
b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;
c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;
d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Katherine Fink

From: Alex Lepley

Please see the attached information regarding the recent GRAMA request for
information on the department's UAV program for both programs within the
Utah Department of Public Safety; the Utah Highway Patrol and the Division
of Emergency Management.

*From the Division of Emergency Management; *

Nearly all of DEM's drone documentation is on this site:

http://dem.utah.gov/news-and-events/uav-reports/

Documents there meet the requester's requirements for

Items 2 (policies, guidelines and manuals) and 3a (records of current use).

For Item 1, I will have to provide that separately with the Prepurchase
approval and PSA 12 for our Phantom 2 and similar documents for our video
transmitter and receiver. I don't plan to add that to our website, though.
Those are the only financial records I have.

For item 3c (information about how high our drone can fly), I will add that
to our web page.

For item 3d (weapons on your drone) we have no information, nor have any
plans for our drone to carry weapons.
--
Lt. Alex Lepley
Utah Highway Patrol
Training Section Commander
5681 South 320 West
Murray, Utah 84107
(801) 284-5500 Office
(801) 381-5281 Cell

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