Despite public's privacy concerns, Polk Commission approves sheriff's $5 million airplane

Calling it a “spy plane,” residents were critical at Tuesday’s commission meeting of a Sheriff’s Office request to buy a $5 million fixed-wing aircraft with thermal imaging cameras, which they said would invade the privacy and the constitutional rights of residents and especially marginalized populations.

But before the commission voted unanimously in favor of the purchase, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office defended the need for the new aircraft - a Kodiak 100 turboprop with 10-seats and payload capacity, and short takeoff and landing capabilities.

“So the idea that it's this massive aircraft with a satellite dish on top, I mean I heard some of the comments earlier, that's tinfoil-hat crazy talk,” said Ian Floyd, chief of the agency’s department of law enforcement.

“We're not out there surveilling, you know, law abiding citizens," Floyd said. "This is primarily for drug traffickers who are, you know, pushing poison into our community. That's who we're going after.”

But the purchase had its critics. During public comments before the vote, Bonnie Patterson-James, an abortion-rights activist running for the Florida House against state Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, spoke against the purchase.

In a text to a reporter after the meeting, said she was shocked that a “$5 million spy plane was approved without any public comment or explanation for its intended use.”

“The implications for the privacy of our citizens are deeply concerning,” Patterson said. “Where will the data collected by this spy plane go? And how will it be used?”

'Lack of accountability'

She said she was primarily concerned the airplane would spy on individuals seeking to exercise their reproductive rights by visiting an abortion clinic or pregnancy crisis center as well as marginalized communities.

“The potential for this spy plane to be used to monitor places frequented by the LGBTQIA community, such as bars, queer proms and DRAG shows, is alarming,” she said.

She also called it “a lack of accountability” that Sheriff Grady Judd has not placed cameras on his deputies yet but now has hi-tech cameras in the sky.

Patterson-James, 55, pled guilty over the summer to a charge of attempting to disturb a lawful assembly for an incident in May at which she allegedly threw underwear toward Canady and a sheriff’s deputy at a groundbreaking event for a new Options for Women pregnancy center, The Ledger previously reported.

As part of the agreement, she plead guilty with adjudication withheld, and paid a fine and costs.

Joining the criticism of the plane was former School Board member Billy Townsend, an activist who publishes a newsletter on Substack. After the vote, he fired off an email to the agency’s public information officer and shared it with a reporter. In the email, he requested from the law enforcement agency “all written guidelines about the use of the newly approved Kodiak airplane's imaging platform.”

Among Townsend’s specific requests from the Sheriff’s Office were:

• Which sheriff's office personnel have access to live or stored footage?

• Under what circumstances can sheriff's office personnel view live or stored footage?

• The effective range/radius of passive surveillance captured when the plane is operating.

• All policies related to footage storage and retention.

On Wednesday, Townsend said by phone if the imaging equipment "... is primarily for drug dealers, they didn't say what else it's for. They absolutely did not answer any questions about which deputies have access to it, what its capabilities are, what are the safeguards for privacy are. They answered none of those questions."

"The county commission should be ashamed of rubber stamping it," he said.

Patterson, also reached after the meeting, agreed that transparency is lacking.

“It is imperative that we stand up and demand answers and transparency in this matter,” she said. “It is time to put a stop to this madness and ensure that the privacy and safety of our marginalized communities are protected. That constitutional privacy is protected. This is unconstitutional until this community has been better informed.”

Performance in Lakeland's crowded airspace

The current Cessna 182 airplane the Sheriff’s Office has used for 20 years and does not have the sophisticated imaging equipment of a Kodiak 100, which can surveil suspects at 8,000 to 10,000 feet in the air.

That would be less of a problem amid the recently increased volume of air traffic around Lakeland Linder International Airport and the airspace above Bartow and Winter Haven, which is also impacted by increased flights by Prime Air – now with up to 40 operations per day in Lakeland.

The Cessna has to be flown at 2,000 feet for investigators to use gyro-stabilized binoculars to track suspects involved in drug trafficking and other crimes, Judd said by phone Wednesday. But that is the same altitude cargo planes use to approach the runways in Lakeland.

"There are several incidents where surveillance has been abandoned because of this issue," a report within the commissioners' agenda packet said. It also said the Kodiak 100 would have payload capacity for transporting equipment, supplies and personnel during disaster deployments. The Cessna has weight restrictions, and the new aircraft can carry more weight.

The Kodiak 100 has the capability for short landings and takeoffs, which is another benefit to operations in rural locations.

About the current Cessna, Lloyd said, “It's been a good aircraft for us.”

However, “With the altitude that (Prime Air) they’re at, we simply can't perform those missions and really the primary mission is surveilling. We can't get that high with the Cessna.”

Lloyd said the Sheriff’s Office was deliberate in its process for selecting the new aircraft. The Kodiak is safe, economical and can last 40 years with proper maintenance.

“It really checks all the boxes,” he said.

Commission Chairman Bill Beasley asked Floyd whether the sheriff’s current airplane was used in the recent fentanyl bust in Polk County. It was not, Floyd said, adding other aircraft from north Florida and as far away as California were used in the investigation.

“We had to utilize other aircraft for that investigation, but had we had the Kodiak, we would have been able to do that,” Lloyd said.

'It's just time to update the technology'

The new plane could be the second new aircraft purchased in 2023, as the Sheriff's Office gained approval of a new $1.9 helicopter − a Robinson R66 − to replace an aging helicopter. The aviation unit has three helicopters and eight pilots, with at least one pilot on duty 24 hours every day.

Commissioner George Lindsey asked about the status of pilots with the training needed to fly the new plane. Lloyd said four of five pilots already were cross-trained for flying both helicopters and fix-wing aircraft. A fifth pilot would be getting the training soon.

Commissioner Neil Combee asked Lloyd about the privacy concerns related to the new plane's imaging capabilities that residents had brought up.

Who would be watching? Lakeland police want to put surveillance cameras on city roads

“Some questions have come up in the last few days from people about privacy concerns,” Combee said. “You know, who's going to review and look at it, how's the information stored, for how long? Is that something that anybody should be concerned about?”

"That information isn't videotaped," Lloyd said. "I heard talk that we're looking into people's houses. That's conspiracy theory crazy talk. We don't do that."

During an agenda review on Dec. 1, the commission had come to a consensus to place the budget transfers needed to buy the plane on the consent agenda, which would have kept the item from being discussed by the board because consent items are all voted on in one block without debate.

But by Monday, the commission decided to move the item to its regular agenda.

Beasley said the board's original process was changed after he received as many as a dozen calls about transparency on an unrelated agenda item that was dropped completely.

"When you make a mistake in government, it's viewed as a conspiracy," he said. "That's just the way it is."

When asked by phone Wednesday, Judd said, “It's just time to update the technology, so that we can keep the people safe.”

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Despite privacy concerns, Polk OKs sheriff's $5M surveillance airplane