New Orleans City Councilmembers approve funding to expand NOPD drone program

By Jasmine Robinson

Contributing Writer

(Veritenews.org) – The New Orleans City Council voted 4-3 on Thursday (April 16) to fund the expansion of the New Orleans Police Department’s drone program.

The program aims to increase response times in the French Quarter by deploying a drone to assess scenes before officers are dispatched.

Acting as the French Quarter Economic Development District, Councilmembers Eugene Green, Jason Hughes, Freddie King and JP Morrell voted for the measure while Councilmembers Lesli Harris, Aimee McCarron and Matthew Willard voted against it.

The expanded drone program called Drone First Responder raised concerns about surveillance in the French Quarter, which opponents say is already too high. NOPD and the French Quarter Management District, which made the funding request, say the drones will not be used for surveillance.

“What we are looking to do with DFR is to take that technology that we have been using for years within the city to make it more efficient and to get us better oversight of not only the district, but events like today,” said NOPD 8th District Captain Samuel Palumbo, referencing the French Quarter Festival.

Through the NOPD’s drone program, which began in 2024, the department operates nine drones. Eight of those make up a fully operated citywide fleet, and one drone used in the 8th District is partially operational. The 8th District includes the French Quarter.

The newly added drone will be available to operate 24/7, Palumbo said. It will be equipped with a camera and parachute, a spotlight, speaker and a dropping mechanism that could drop a life raft, for example.

The drone could also be used during major special events in the French Quarter to ensure that vehicles haven’t breached barriers that block traffic, he said.

NOPD said it is a “force multiplier” that can extend patrol coverage and support multiple units without adding personnel. The department says that the drones will be able to reach a scene in under two minutes.

High among the concerns from councilmembers who opposed the program is the drone’s capacity for facial recognition. Palumbo emphasized that the drone would not have facial recognition ability. But according to NOPD policy, still images captured by the drone can be submitted for facial recognition analysis, McCarron said.

The French Quarter Management District, a political subdivision created by the state legislature, requested the $250,000 to fund the new drone and its docking station. The money will be appropriated from the French Quarter Economic Development District’s operating budget.

The initial funding proposal for the drone program was a $740,000 request to fund three or four drones, according to The Times-Picayune. According to reports, “other partners” have funded this portion of the expanded drone program, but those partners have not been publicly identified.

Before the vote, councilmembers questioned Palumbo on accountability and transparency measures in place for the current drone program and what would be implemented with the new first responder drone.

Willard raised concerns about potential misuse of the drones by an officer or footage being used in authorized cases after the fact. Palumbo suggested that an operator would be deterred from misusing the drone because any misuse would be recorded. The drones record video from takeoff until landing.

“There have been reports of drone operators doing things that they’re not supposed to be doing. I just want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that the policy is being followed,” Willard said.

With the expanded program, NOPD will implement a public dashboard to document deployments with details such as deployment time, the reason for flight and flight path. Footage captured by the drone will not be publicly available on the dashboard.

The NOPD’s current drone program involves officers logging deployment details on paper records only. A public records request would need to be made to obtain these logs.

McCarron wasn’t satisfied with Palumbo’s explanations of NOPD’s drone policies.

“This is the problem that I’m struggling with about this program – is that it hasn’t been fully assessed by this whole council or meaningfully engaged with the public about it,” McCarron said during the meeting.

Dozens of people signed up to share public comment at the meeting – many of whom were affiliated with Eye on Surveillance, a local organization that opposes the program. However, King, who chairs the district, announced he would limit the public commenting portion of the meeting to ten minutes, or about five commenters.

King said there was a hard stop on the hourlong meeting due to an upcoming meeting in the council chambers. After the commenting period, attendees in opposition to the program openly criticized the council for limiting public comments on the issue, which they called “undemocratic.”

Following the meeting, tensions rose in the council chambers as Eyes on Surveillance organizers shouted at remaining councilmembers.

Surveillance and privacy concerns remain for organizers opposing the program. It’s part of a broader conversation around surveillance in New Orleans, which has been amplified recently by developments with Project NOLA, a nonprofit organization that operates crime cameras and shares footage with NOPD.

Edith Romero, an organizer with Eye on Surveillance, told Verite News that she’s worried about the use of drones in immigration enforcement. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has used drones for surveillance during protests.

She referenced Louisiana Act 399, a state law that criminalizes interference with federal immigration enforcement.

“If ICE comes in and wants the footage from these drones, is NOPD ready to say ‘no’ and possibly be prosecuted by the state?” Romero said.

During last Thursday’s meeting, Palumbo said NOPD policy doesn’t allow them to share drone footage with law enforcement agencies that the department doesn’t already have an existing agreement with. Mayor Helena Moreno has previously said NOPD would “never” enter an agreement to assist federal immigration enforcement agencies.

This article originally published in the April 20, 2026 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.