Santa Fe City Council considers $2 million drone expansion amid privacy concerns

SANTA FE, N.M. —

Santa Fe City Council is voting Wednesday evening on a proposal to expand the police department’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, which would add six new drones to its operations at an estimated cost of over $2 million over five years.

Fort Marcy Park is one of three proposed “hive” locations where the drones would be deployed. If police receive a call about an incident at one of these locations, a drone would be dispatched within three minutes as a first responder instead of a police officer.

Santa Fe Interim Police Chief Ben Valdez said the drones are intended to improve safety and reduce response times.

“One thing we don’t want to have happen is a member of our community or one of our first responders to be injured in the process,” Valdez said. “If someone is in crisis, we don’t want them to see a police officer and then escalate the situation — and then it makes that situation worse instead of better.”

The department plans to retain non-evidentiary data collected by the drones for 90 days, the same retention period as police body camera footage.

“Our officers really appreciated having that overwatch on calls — especially calls that could be dangerous in nature,” Valdez said.

Some residents, however, have raised concerns about the program, citing potential privacy infringements.

“Having more surveillance in this city is really not what we need,” said Wren Sharkey, a Santa Fe resident.

Sharkey also lamented the financial cost to the individual taxpayer.

“We’re going to spend another two million on a drone to increase the surveillance state,” they said. “It feels ridiculous.”

This debate comes as other New Mexico communities, such as Taos, have recently voted to defund surveillance technology like Flock cameras. Locally, some Santa Fe residents believe the funds could be better spent elsewhere.

“Investing in our social services, in our community — we have so many people here with everything from incredible business ideas to incredible art ideas to culture-building opportunities,” Sharkey said. “All of those things are underfunded.”

At the city council’s finance committee meeting earlier this week, only one councilor — Alma Castro — opposed the proposal, citing its costs.