A Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office drone has had eyes on Penny Hot Springs crime calls for the first time this fall, which the office said has helped it use its resources more efficiently.
Stationed about 1.5 miles south of the hot springs on Pitkin County Open Space & Trails-owned land, the “Drone as a First Responder” system allows the office to see the amount of resources, if any, it needs to put toward a crime call, rather than send a deputy, or deputies, on at least a 20 or 30 minute drive to the hot springs.
“We’re using it as a tool, as a deputy in the sky,” Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione said.
The drone — which has a Federal Aviation Administration registration number and about a 2-foot by 2-foot span when flying — was first stationed in the Penny Hot Springs area during the first week of October in response to crime calls over the summer. The office plans to move the drone to the downvalley side of Snowmass Canyon to respond to traffic incidents sometime this week.
The calls over the summer and into the fall included complaints of individuals spending the night at Penny, welfare concerns, parking-related calls, indecent exposure and more, according to Parker Lathrop, Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy of operations. (It’s illegal to be naked at Penny as it’s set on public land.) Buglione said there was one individual living out of their van earlier in the fall that “kind of took ownership of the parking area,” which prompted some harassment-
related calls.
Pilots can “get some eyes” on a situation using the drone at Penny within two minutes of a call to the sheriff’s office, Buglione said, adding that it also helps them understand the resources required in traffic incidents, as is the office’s plan for drone use in Snowmass Canyon.
“It’s just such a great help to have these eyes in the sky,” Buglione said, “and there’s so many, many things that we can do with it, and other agencies are doing with it, and it’s a growing program in law enforcement for sure, and we will be getting more.”
Regarding drone use more broadly, Anaya Robinson, the public policy director at ACLU of Colorado, an organization focused on civil rights and liberties, said individuals’ privacy rights come into question.
“There is a lot of concern around invasion of privacy and breaching that Fourth Amendment threshold when it comes to the government utilizing these drones,” he said.
To collect information with a drone facing private property, that would otherwise be out of view from ground level without a warrant, would violate an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights protecting citizens from unreasonable government search and seizure, Robinson said.
He added that law enforcement use of technologies like drones, complex camera systems and AI can be “extremely problematic,” but not if they are “well, appropriately and responsibly regulated.”
“Right now, they’re really not,” he said, “beyond internal policies.”
Buglione said the sheriff’s office does not record with the drone until it feels it necessary and it is lawful to do so. Recording or videoing at Penny Hot Springs falls within the office’s legal right as it is situated on public land. He added that the sheriff’s office is going to create a public link on its website home page that maps where the drone has flown.
“People want to see where the drone flies,” Buglione said. “They have every right to see exactly where the drone has flown.”
He added, though not positive on these details, that the public might be able to request the video produced by the drone through the Colorado Open Records Act, depending on whether or not an incident is still under investigation.
Robinson said that law enforcement use of technologies like drones, complex camera systems and AI in a responsible and regulated manner can “help on the back end because there is not an unlimited supply of taxpayer dollars.”
“While communities need to be kept safe, we also need to fund public schools. We also need to fund healthcare access. We also need to fund food access. We also need to fund access to housing,” Robinson said. “Those resources aren’t unlimited, so utilizing them in a responsible manner is and always has been important. A lot of these tools allow for that future, but they have to be regulated in their use.”
From an environmental standpoint, the sheriff’s office spoke with Pitkin County Open Space & Trails to understand the best way to mitigate wildlife disruption, and got permission from the department to station the drone on its land.
Lathrop said the office avoids flying the drone over the Filoha Meadows wildlife nature preserve that runs along the valley to the east of the Crystal River to keep from disturbing wildlife, apart from one mapping flight the drone carried out above the preserve at 200 feet in the air midday. The office flies the drone above the Crystal or Highway 133 to get to Penny Hot Springs from where it’s stationed, he added.
“The drone, if anything, helps protect our wildlife by monitoring any trespassing that may happen into the preserve,” said Jami McMannes, communications and outreach specialist for Pitkin County Open Space & Trails, who spoke on behalf of Open Space & Trails Director Gary Tennenbaum.
Ecologist Delia Malone, a Redstone resident who founded wildlife- and habitat-
focused ColoradoWild, said, however, that drone use in the area could adversely impact wildlife. She said bighorn sheep and elk could “absolutely” notice a drone flying in the area at 100 meters, or over 300 feet, off the ground. The office’s drone flight height is restricted to 200 feet above ground level or less, per the Federal Aviation Administration.
Malone added that bighorn sheep might mistake the drone for a golden eagle, which preys on the species, and could cause them to separate from their young if they have a flight response. Drone use could also spike an elk’s heart rate and impact their survival through the winter, she said
Elk, she said, may migrate to Filoha Meadows as early as October, and bighorn sheep use the areas adjacent to the hot springs through the winter. Breeding songbirds, whose breeding season can run from June into August, are also sensitive to drone use as they could mistake a drone for a predator like a raven or hawk, she added.
“The consequence of disturbing wildlife, I think, is not worth combatting this minimal crime,” she said.