Officials claim police drones will revitalize downtown and "create a community connection" (Updated)

If you are having trouble digesting the headline, just imagine how much trouble I am having trying to write about it.

In what has to be the most ludicrous excuse ever made by police to spy on citizens, this one is at the top of my list.

Last month the Riverhead Police Department in New York and town officials claimed that drones, increased foot patrols and surveillance cameras would help revitalize downtown.

The headline reads, "Drones, police foot patrols, more floated to uplift Riverhead's downtown."

“We’re concerned about revitalizing downtown, and part of the revitalization of downtown is also public safety,” Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith said in a Sept. 4 interview. “Questions have come up, whether it be the perception of safety..."

Officials claim that using police drones to monitor downtown shoppers will "create a community connection."

Splitting Riverhead’s current police foot patrol sector into two sectors would “create more of a community connection in the area that the officers are patrolling," Jens-Smith said. "There’s more eyes and ears in the area, and hopefully that will lead to more people coming to shop and recreate in downtown more.”

To claim that surveillance drones will "create more of a community connection" is a new low by anyone's standards. 

Updated 10/8:

DoJ's plan to convince the public to accept police drones
The DoJ, the Police Foundation and the Office of Community Oriented Policing recently released a guidebook on how to convince the public to accept police drones. I highly recommend reading the guidebook called, "Community Policing & Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Guidelines to Enhance Community Trust."

"The Police Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, has developed this guidebook to help public safety agencies successfully assess the appropriateness of acquiring a sUAS in their jurisdiction, all the while ensuring public support, avoiding public-relations pitfalls, and enhancing community trust along the way. As this guidebook outlines, the acquisition of a sUAS provides police with another opportunity to increase outreach and engagement with their communities. The agencies that have succeeded in acquiring a sUAS for their departments have undertaken community-focused outreach such as meeting with skeptics, and have provided repeated public demonstrations of the capabilities of their sUAS."

Three questions about police surveillance drones that need to be asked.

1.) Will the police use Riverhead's, electric-powered Luminati Aerospace drones to revitalize downtown?

Two years ago, the Long Island Press called Luminati a secretive drone company, that refuses to reveal who their clients are.

2.) Will the police use "Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communications" drones that can fly over downtown for hours without being recharged? 

3.) Will the police use Aptonomy drones to revitalize downtown? 
According to an article in the Los Altos Town Crier, Aptonomy volunteers their drones to police departments as an incentive to use them exclusively.
Police used drones to spy on music festivalgoers

What's next? Will police claim that stop-and-frisk's will revitalize downtown's?

Claiming police surveillance drones will revitalize downtown's is a portend of what's to come.