Jul. 25—MIDDLETOWN — Officials tried to allay concerns from Middletown residents about the proposed implementation of Flock Safety drone technology, which at least one person believes could conduct "indiscriminate mass surveillance" of people across the city.

Despite the reservations of citizens, officials think the drones could be particularly helpful in swiftly responding to emergencies at the Connecticut River and elsewhere.

Flock sells a number of tools, including automatic license plate readers. The controversial readers are used in many communities, including across Connecticut — but that's not the tool that Middletown officials are interested in, the city's general counsel, Brig Smith, said during a July 20 Public Safety Commission meeting.

Instead, city officials want to use Flock's Drone as First Responder product. In a letter to the community back in February, Police Chief Erik Costa said the drones can be used for many purposes, including assisting in search-and-rescue operations and identifying fire scenes.

"This is intended for life, health, safety, emergency situations and will not be used for license plate reading of any kind," Smith said.

It would cost some $50,000 a year to implement the program.

Costa said during the recent commission meeting the cost will be paid with asset forfeiture law enforcement seized through criminal investigations, such as drug sales.

In January, the Common Council authorized police and fire to enter into a contract with Flock. What was approved was a "boilerplate contract," Smith said during the July meeting.

After it was signed, Council Majority Leader Darnell Ford, also chairman of the Public Safety Commission, had concerns about possible uses of the data, Smith said. "One of the most important things we heard is using this technology in support of enforcement actions by (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)."

An effort has been made to make the agreement "much more substantial ... and better spell out what the technology is going to be used for, and what its limitations are," Smith said, adding that the process took months and is still ongoing.

The program is a joint effort between the fire and police departments, Costa said, and was inspired by multiple recent events at the Connecticut River.

"We had significant incidents occurring on the river where people had taken their own lives jumping off the bridge or driving their cars into the river," he said.

"When these acts happen, people go under the water very quickly. The drone technology could be dispatched at the first call; be the first eye to the incident and point us in the right direction," Costa said.

The drone cameras record video and would be considered evidence in an investigation, Costa said.

Over a two-week period, Fire Chief Dave Albert said, firefighters were called to several emergencies at the river. Three dive teams, and several boat teams were called to the scene only to find out later the person was on land.

"Diving is a very dangerous activity. We're putting them in a heavy current-flowing river," he said.

Upon deployment, Costa said, the drone can arrive in less than a minute. These drones have many advantages for first responders, including rapidly documenting a scene, he told CT Insider.

"The drone is capable of putting an eye in the air for officers to respond effectively."

In his Feb. 19 letter, Costa said the drone "is not intended for routine monitoring of the community."

"It is no different than a police officer responding to a call," Costa told CT Insider.

Many residents who spoke at the July meeting seemed unclear on which type of technology the city plans to implement and shared concerns either about license plate readers, cameras and technology in general invading their privacy.

"We're living in a time where the tech industries are heavily unregulated," said Middletown resident James Calabrese. "These issues come up over and over again for Flock, Meta, Google."

Mads Reed said he has "strong" concerns about what he referred to as "the indiscriminate mass surveillance of our city residents."

Though Middletown officials said the city wasn't getting license plate readers, Reed referenced other towns in Connecticut where that specific technology has been either removed or turned off.

"It would be very short-sighted of Middletown to install and implement these devices now only to remove them later at great cost," he said.

Most recently, Killingworth officials said the town will be removing its automated license plate readers following resident complaints, and Windsor officials voted to shut them off.

Amid widespread concern about the readers, the state legislature passed a series of regulations this spring on how police departments in the state can use the technology.

Killingworth First Selectman Eric Couture recently told CT Insider that officials determined they had not added value to local policing efforts, and are not worth the cost considering the ambivalence from the public and local officials.

In February, Windsor town leaders voted to shut off the cameras following skepticism from the community, and concerns federal agencies, such as ICE, previously accessed the data in an effort to enforce federal immigration laws.

Flock says its technology reads billions of plates on a monthly basis and its system has a very high accuracy rate.

The drones themselves also sparked concern in Bridgeport. In January members of the City Council rejected a plan to equip the Bridgeport police force with drones in the face of community opposition, though the effort is likely to be revived.

At the July meeting, only one person spoke up in favor of the drones — city resident Alex Jones, who said he supported the technology but didn't elaborate.

Smith told the meeting attendees that officials share the same concerns residents expressed about privacy and other issues.

"Public comments were exactly the kind of comments we were trying to be sensitive to in talking to Flock Safety about providing us a more comprehensive agreement, and one that better spells out what the technology is going to be used for and what its limitations are," he said.

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