Students play with police drones and body cameras at Philly tech summit

A police drone is so easy to use, an 8-year-old can operate it — at least on Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.

About 250 students ages 4 to 18 gathered Thursday for the fifth annual X5 Teen Tech Summit, which was hosted by Grace 3 Technologies, drone company Skydio, and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Students circled through stations under the beaming sun where they operated the same type of drones used by Philadelphia police, watched a robotic dog strut across the track, held Axon police body cameras, learned about police reports written with artificial intelligence, and played a soccer tournament with recreational drones.

The event is intended to foster interest in tech, robotics, and public safety careers, particularly among Black and brown students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn about these technologies in such a hands-on way, according to organizers. It was founded in 2019 by John Henry, who is Black and runs Grace 3 Technologies, a Philadelphia-based drone reseller.

State Rep. Jordan Harris, the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee chair who represents parts of Philadelphia, and Debora Carrera, Philadelphia’s chief education officer, attended in support of the initiative.

With a circle of kids around her, Carrera asked students to raise their hands if they want a job flying or building a drone one day.

“The Philadelphia Police Department has been using this technology to help our city become safer,” she told the students.

Kids were connected with the program through the Police Athletic League (PAL) of Philadelphia; the NOMO Foundation, a community-based violence prevention program; and the Philadelphia Energy Authority. The annual summit began five years ago with students playing with Skydio drones before the Philadelphia Police Department even had them.

At the event, Carrera remotely operated a drone in a San Francisco warehouse from a laptop.

“You know how the United States has 50 states? That’s California. Maybe your chaperone can help you see it on the map,” she told a young girl attending the event, who went on to pet a robotic dog decorated with a Verizon logo.

At another station, a worker for body-camera company Axon asked students why people pull out their phones to record. To capture moments and memories, they responded.

“Capture what happened, right?” the Axon worker said. “So I want to be able to go back and be like, ‘Hey, this happened and here’s the video evidence.’ Keyword ‘evidence,’ of what happened.”

He showed them how the tool works and let them throw it on the turf to show them it’s “indestructible.” The kids grabbed stickers with the Axon logo.

Students flew the same kind of drones used by the police department over the event on the field, operating them from a computer. These drones can be used for public safety, responding to fires, and utility work involving looking at bridges or power lines, according to Skydio workers.

Joe Warwick, program manager for major deployments at Skydio who works as an embedded program manager with the city’s police department, said the department currently uses drones that are controlled by hand for events like protests and sporting events. He is working with police to install drone docks across the city, which would allow drones to be remotely controlled miles away to respond to 911 calls, particularly in areas “in need of support.”

Warwick said the department has fewer than a dozen hand-flown Skydio drones and will start with just a few docked devices. He believes the department has a few other drones but the majority of its fleet is from his company.

The police department declined to answer questions about its drone program.

City Councilmember Rue Landau said in April that the force had nine devices as part of its nascent drone program with plans to purchase 18 more.

Carrera said the program, “if anything, is sparking curiosity.”

“The kids that are here are kids who look like me, who represent me, who I’m pretty sure we came from similar backgrounds, and at such an early age, they’re being exposed to not only the drone technology, but to a career,” Carrera said in an interview.

“And whenever kids are curious, we should get excited as adults,” she added.

Stacee Hendricks, program and community engagement manager for PAL, said the organization is going to launch a program for elementary and middle schoolers around ages 8 to 13 to learn about drones. She praised the summit for teaching kids about STEM (science, engineering, technology, and mathematics).

But not everyone thought the event should be celebrated.

Privacy advocate Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, called the event “horrifying.”

“Militarized police tech is not a toy, it’s a threat to our safety and democracy,” he said. “As police deploy drones over more of our cities, capturing more images from our homes and private lives, they try to promote it like a high-tech gadget and avoid the hard questions.

“More than a decade into the body camera, cops spend more time promoting the tool for PR than actually providing community members with access to footage,” he added. “Elected officials should know better than to endorse this sort of event.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro was initially advertised as planning to attend the event but was not there, and his office declined to comment. As state budget negotiations continued, Shapiro on Thursday announced a grant for a gas pump on an ATV trail in Potter County.

Harris, the state legislator, said he is glad that students can learn about how technology can be monetized and that the police department is “looking at best practices and how to use technology to enhance their ability to apprehend and close cases.”

“I’m sure some folks have some privacy concerns and we’ll legislatively continue to work through those things, but this is a technology that is out there that can help keep communities safer,” he said. “And I think that is a benefit to all of us.”