Under pressure from the White House, the FAA is streamlining approvals for law enforcement drone programs, enabling rapid ...

Art Castañares, a Chula Vista resident, had what should have been a simple question in 2021: How is the Chula Vista Police Department using its drones?

Years after Chula Vista launched its program, many cities have followed suit, including the New York City Police Department. To determine if drones-as-first-responders may be the future of ...

In spring 2021, Arturo “Art” Castañares of Eastlake read press reports about the Chula Vista Police Department winning FAA approval to use aerial drones — the first law agency in the nation ...

The ruling comes after the California Supreme Court refused to hear the city’s complaint in the wake of its appeals court loss.

From a rooftop a mile away, the Chula Vista Police Department started the rotors of a 13-pound drone. The machine lifted into the air with its high-resolution camera rolling. Equipped with thermal ...

The technology is already out in force in some cities, but the true debate on privacy and policies is lagging behind. In the skies above Chula Vista, California, where the police department runs a ...

In 2018, the Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) launched the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, allowing 911 operators to deploy drones either in lieu of or in addition to uniformed ...

Police have long dabbled with drones, but using them to respond to 911 calls is relatively new and rare. The first-responder program got its start in 2018 in Chula Vista, near San Diego ...

When La Prensa publisher and longtime Chula Vista resident Art Castañares first filed a public records request in 2021 to review video footage from police department drones, he wanted “to ...

The public has a right to see at least some of the video footage from Chula Vista Police Department drones, according to a landmark state appeals court ruling out this week. Chula Vista police ...

On March 27, 2021, for example, a Chula Vista Police Department drone was dispatched to a call where an elderly man had fallen. The city argued that releasing the tape would violate the man’s ...