New Prague city councilors approved the purchase of two Matrice 4TD Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAV) from Vertex Unmanned Solutions for $24,598. Last Monday, April 20, drones the police department will use to serve the public in times of urgent need – when searching for a lost person, searching for a suspect or someone in need.
Police Chief Tim Applen’s memo to the city council indicates the intent of the city spending nearly $25,000 on drones is not to spy on people or look for things the city doesn’t need to know about. Yes, we recognize the area of gray is wide open. But if we can’t trust the people we employ to protect us and our community, there’s a far great concern to be addressed.
The use of the UAV potentially involves privacy considerations. Absent a warrant or urgent circumstances, operators and observers shall not intentionally record or transmit images of any location where a person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g., residence, yard, enclosure), the chief’s memo states. Operators and observers shall take reasonable precautions to avoid inadvertently recording or transmitting images of areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Reasonable precautions can include, for example, deactivating or turning imaging devices away from such areas or persons during UAV operations.
We recognize the importance of a decision to spend $24,598 in taxpayer dollars for a tool for the police department. The money is not the issue here. The devices will become invaluable in situations, for example, searching for a lost child or vulnerable adult, searching for a suspect who has fled the scene of a possible offense. The expenditure is a small amount of money in the New Prague Police Department’s budget. The issue here is trust and transparency.
Sadly, the unfortunate mistake of not holding a public hearing as part of the process of funding the much-needed new police station once again raised its head. When the notion of the purchasing the drones was raised during discussions on the city’s 2026 operating budget, the city knew a policy for the use of the UAVs would be needed and the process for approving the policy would require a public hearing. The policy was before the city council Monday, April 20, with the required public hearing.
In this day and age of gotcha politics and quick rushes to judgement, social media posts would have one believe the city was tardy in holding the public hearing or perhaps should have held it earlier so people would have the opportunity to comment on it. Instead, the city waited until the proper policy could be created, thoroughly vetted before being presented to the city’s elected represented. City staff and councilors hopefully noted publicly the anticipated timeline for the creation of a policy and study it would take before the required public hearing was scheduled.
Back in late-2025, had New Prague mentioned the need for a public hearing once the UAV policy was ready, the city might have been able to silence or soften the naysayers whose blood pressure increases slightly every time the words ‘public’ and ‘hearing’ are placed in the same sentence. It’s unfathomable the city intentionally, with forethought, did not hold a public hearing on the bonds for the new police station. Such a choice to withhold such a required step in the process costs law firms municipal contracts and members of city staff their jobs.
The simple fact is there aren’t many communities out there with policies on the use of UAVs and there’s no clearinghouse for cooky-cutter policies where all city staff has to do is fill in the blank with the name of the city. Given the concern the public has for privacy, to their credit, staff and New Prague’s legal counsel navigated the hoops to craft a policy the council would accept. These days, that’s no small feat.