T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshalltown resident Daniel Abens, right, expressed his concerns with the proposed purchase of a new drone to be shared between the police and fire departments while MPD Officer Brad Mauseth, left, and Capt. Chris Jones, center, look on during Monday night’s city council meeting.

The final discussion item on Monday night’s Marshalltown city council agenda concerned the purchase of a new drone to be shared between the police and fire departments, a proposal that drew the ire of at least one local resident.

Captain and soon-to-be Police Chief Chris Jones came before the council to request $16,004 in Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) funds to supplement the unmanned aerial vehicle program, noting that a drone had been previously purchased in 2020.

“We are currently at a point where that technology has been outdated. The device that we have currently is not being supported by the manufacturer that we purchased it from,” he said. “We are no longer able to purchase parts for it, but it is a functioning device. So we’re looking to supplement and maintain our current drone in our fleet until it becomes inoperable.”

The MPD has five licensed drone operators on staff, and the MFD has three. Jones said the device has various uses for city departments, including public works, in need of aerial footage. The drone they hope to purchase, he added, is considered the public safety standard among nearby agencies. According to Jones, the new technology will be quicker to use and deploy and is all self-contained with an optical digital zoom and thermal imaging.

Once Jones had wrapped up his initial comments, Councilor Jeff Schneider made a motion to move forward with drafting a formal resolution allocating funds for the project. During the public comment period, Linda Clark advocated for giving the police and fire departments the tools they need to do their jobs, but another resident, Daniel Abens, took a more skeptical view.

“I don’t quite understand what these would be used for, what problem they were solving,” he said. “What is the great concern that we need to buy drones for the police, which is frankly a hard phrase to say. Police drones feels a little dystopia, a little science fiction.”

He added that he has read stories about communities where drones are “ubiquitous” and felt it caused friction between citizens and police departments, which he didn’t believe existed in Marshalltown.

“And I’d like to keep it that way, so I guess I’m confused as to what we need these for,” Abens said.

Jones then welcomed MPD Officer Brad Mauseth, who serves as the department’s lead drone pilot, to elaborate further on the uses. He explained that a drone was used after the tornado and derecho to assess damage from the air, and he said there have been no issues with the community thus far since the first device was purchased in 2020.

Mauseth highlighted the zooming and thermal capabilities of the drone, but he said the current drone takes about seven minutes to launch, which can be too long in some situations. Additional uses include tracking down wanted individuals attempting to flee or search and rescue missions. The new drone would have a launch time of less than a minute and a dual battery setup to repower faster, as well as a viewfinder with GPS coordinates that can be sent back during search and rescue operations.

Councilor Gary Thompson asked Mauseth, who serves as the volunteer fire chief in Le Grand, if he could speak to how the MFD uses the drone, and Mauseth said they have used it on a fire at the Alliant facility for heat reduction and tracking where the heat remained. In Story County, he added, a drone was used to help pinpoint a blaze and send firefighters to the right spot and put it out quicker.

When Thompson asked Abens if that helped him understand the purpose, he responded “not especially.” From there, Police Chief Mike Tupper stepped in and explained that the drones are primarily utilized for emergency events by pilots who are closely supervised with policies in place regulating how they are used.

“We’re not using it as general surveillance of the community. We would never do that. I would never allow that. Capt. Jones would never allow that,” Tupper said. “I ask you to think about some critical events that this community has faced, not just natural disaster related, but think about the missing person investigations we’ve dealt with over the years — Cory Brown (as an example). These are force multiplier pieces of equipment where we can use technology in an emergency situation to conduct search and rescue operations quickly, effectively and efficiently. Again, they’re not used as surveillance of the community.”

The drone, Tupper added, has also been used during tactical operations to arrest violent criminal offenders along with “important, emergency life saving situations” when the MPD doesn’t have enough people to cover and search an entire area.

“I know I’m not your chief of police much longer, but I trust Chris Jones and I trust the supervisors we have in the police department. And they closely and effectively supervise these situations, and they would never allow the abuse of this equipment. And again, we do not use this equipment to conduct surveillance, just for the fun of it, of our community,” Tupper said.

Abens said the explanation helped “a little bit,” but he then asked if there were situations where the MPD or MFD wasn’t able to do what it wanted to do because it didn’t have a new enough drone. Tupper responded that technology is the future of everything, and because the department is only budgeted for 42 officers with work for 50, he saw a new drone as a useful force multiplier in assisting with emergency events.

“There have been numerous situations during my 32-year law enforcement career where technology like this would’ve been helpful. Thankfully now, in the year 2024, we have it,” the chief said. “And I’m certain, although I don’t want anything bad to happen in our community, I’m certain there will be other events that happen in our community where technology like this will be useful, and it will be life saving.”

From there, Abens, referencing earlier comments suggesting that the Marshalltown Community Band do its own fundraising as opposed to relying on taxpayer dollars, wondered if the police department could do the same. Councilor/Mayor Pro Tem Mike Ladehoff explained that the money being requested would come from the traffic camera tickets, and a new state law only allows those dollars to be put toward public safety or infrastructure.

“Infrastructure would be great too. I’m just throwing that out there, as a use for those funds,” Abens said.

Tupper commented that the police department is different from the Arts+Culture Alliance, a private nonprofit organization, in that it is a government entity, and he reiterated his support for the purchase. Councilor Melisa Fonseca asked if the MPD would now have both drones available in the event of an emergency, and Jones said they would — but he wasn’t sure how much longer the older one would last. Fonseca also highlighted the myriad uses of the technology for both the MPD and MFD, and Jones said the company that produced the current drone has been bought out with the new owners not providing software updates or replacement parts.

The final public comment came from Jim Shaw, who wondered if two drones should be bought so each department could have its own. Jones responded that there has been no overlap in services thus far, but an additional purchase could be an option in the future if demand dictates it. The original motion to bring back a formal resolution authorizing up to $20,000 for the purchase passed by a unanimous 7-0 tally.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.