CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The Chula Vista Police Department is addressing safety and privacy concerns over the use of their drone program.
This comes after viewers tipped CBS 8 off about drones launching from the top of Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center.
“It’s concerning if a drone is taking off from a hospital that the public is unaware of that,” said Pedro Rios, who worked on groups that overlooked the use of surveillance technology by the City of Chula Vista.
Rios said the city and police department have a duty to be transparent.
“There are always issues around transparency, there are always issues about accountability that get missed," added Rios.
Rios echoes the concerns from some members of the community, who say such information must be brought before the public for input.
“There have to be safeguards put in place to protect sensitive data such as our privacy," he said.
Chula Vista police confirmed to CBS 8 that Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center is a launch site location, but did add, however, that before our inquiry the hospital was not listed as a location on their website.
It has since been added to the site, along with all other public drone flight paths.
Rios believes the department should do more to inform the public, patients and staff
“I think it would be important to have signs," added Rios.
Chula Vista police also said the department's policy specifically prohibits the use of drones for "general surveillance or general patrol operations”.
Apart from videos or photos collected, Chula Vista police say other data they record include flight times, police case numbers, location of calls for service, the reason behind the call, and GPS coordinates and flight paths.