Drone as a First Responder (DFR) TacTips #8: Story Time - Stalker

Our Take

This one comes from Paladin, a drone vendor pitching Drone as a First Responder (DFR) programs to police departments, and it's worth watching with a skeptical eye. The video is a vendor testimonial dressed up as a training tip: a pilot named Matt Hardesty recounts helping catch a stalker from the air, presented with zero case number, jurisdiction, date, or way to verify any of it. That's not journalism, it's sales copy — and it's the exact same anecdote-first, verify-never approach Flock Safety uses to sell city councils on blanket ALPR coverage.

The pattern matters because DFR and ALPR networks are increasingly the same fight. Departments that buy into 'eye in the sky' drone programs are often the same ones layering in Flock cameras, license plate readers, and real-time crime centers — building a constant surveillance grid justified one dramatic anecdote at a time. Nobody's arguing cops shouldn't catch stalkers. The problem is that a single compelling story becomes the entire public justification for permanent, always-on aerial and ground-level tracking of everyone, not just the rare bad actor in the anecdote.

If your city is being pitched drones, ALPRs, or both, ask for actual data: how often is the tech used, on whom, and with what oversight — not just the best-case story reel. Check whether Flock cameras are already watching your streets on our map, and if you want to push back on secretive expansion in your community, our take-action page has concrete steps.