The public record
Everything Detroit watches with.
Drones are one piece of a much larger picture. Under Detroit's 2021 oversight ordinance, every city department must file a public report for each surveillance technology it uses. We compiled those filings and contracts into a searchable registry — 20 documented systems, with the departments, vendors, and known costs behind them.
Showing 20 of 20 documented systems · $18.25M in disclosed contracts
From the drone rulebook (Directive 303.6, 2018)
- 01It instructs officers to “avoid” the word “drone” and attach no “military connotation” when referring to the aircraft.
- 02It requires a search warrant before a flight that would be a Fourth-Amendment search — with an exception for “exigent circumstances,” a term the policy doesn't define.
- 03It sets no fixed retention period itself, deferring to other directives; the 2024 Skydio report adds a 30-day default for inadvertently collected video.
Compiled from the city's public CIOGS filings and contract reporting. Some entries don't name a vendor in the public listing. Want the underlying documents? Request them here.
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