An out-of-town company's plan to fly surveillance drones around south St. Louis as a public safety measure has drawn broad pushback from privacy advocates, politicians and city residents. However, the founder of the company claims that drones have been in the air for "close to two months" and residents "haven't noticed anything."
The comments came via an audio recording made by SMS Novel founder Jomo Johnson, who first made news locally in December when he said he planned to begin beta testing his plan with drones in the skies above the Gravois Park Neighborhood by the end of this month.
Johnson’s remarks in the recording indicate that he may be well ahead of schedule.
"I want to re-emphasize that our app and our operators have been in St. Louis for close to two months now," Johnson is heard on the tape saying. "You haven't noticed anything, I don't believe. And it will be the same way when we're doing the beta testing."
Johnson sent the seven-minute audio message to a Gravois Park Neighborhood Association in lieu of making an appearance at their Tuesday night meeting. The members of the neighborhood group declined to play the message at the meeting.
In the message, Johnson calls St. Louis a "a unique, beautiful city with beautiful people." He also keeps referring to the neighborhood association as an HOA, which it is not.
Near the end of his message, he says, "I will say this, for those that do have real concerns and pushback. I would just simply ask why. Why wouldn't we want high tech solutions to eliminate crime in the area?"
The RFT reached out to Johnson asking whether his company's drones have indeed been in the skies above doing surveillance for the past two months. He responded with a few sentences about his company's on-demand drone app, available in 25 cities. Citing "impending litigation," he said that was all he could offer in response to our questions.
At that same meeting, 7th Ward Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier said that she will file legislation at the Board of Aldermen Friday to regulate the sort of private surveillance drone Johnson hopes to have — and could already be — flying above the city.
Sonnier called Johnson's project exploitative and rooted in fear-mongering. She said her bill would heavily regulate commercial drones, requiring them to register with the city as well as make schools and public buildings no fly zones.
Aldermen Rasheen Aldridge and Shane Cohn and Aldermanic President Megan Green have indicated they will support Sonnier's bill.
About the fact that Johnson's drones may already have been flying, Sonnier tells the RFT, "It's not a good sign of community partnership when you come into people's communities and you just impose something on them. This person didn't approach any of the neighbors, didn't have a conversation with any neighborhood organizations or with me, and I represent the majority of Gravois Park."
On Tuesday, the Post-Dispatch reported that Johnson and his company got hit with a cease and desist from the city's Board of Public Service, telling them that if they want to implement the drone program they have to receive proper permits first.
"We’ll seek to practice our liberty to fly drones and take footage,” Johnson told reporter Austin Huguelet. "That's our right."
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