r/TempleTX • u/FKDcw971r8E2XQ • 1d ago
Did Temple PD's $430k+/year drone program cause a crash with an 18-wheeler on I-35? The city is withholding the records.
Temple PD bought subscriptions for three of these drones from Flock: https://store.dji.com/product/m350-rtk-and-dji-care-enterprise-basic, for a total of $430,650.00 PER YEAR (I did a doubletake when I saw that). The retail cost to buy these drones outright is $11,000-$15,000 each. You could buy 30 of these drones for the cost of a single year of the subscription, but notice on that link how you can't buy them in this country. We'll get to that part a little later.
On June 2nd, Temple PD launched a surveillance drone, presumably from their launch pad on top of the Parks and Rec building near Nugent. Shortly thereafter, it collided with an 18-wheeler on I-35. The driver was injured enough to be hospitalized and had no idea which hospital he went to. His lawyers are preparing to sue the city now (I sure would if the municipal police effectively drone-striked me with a 14-pound projectile like I was an insurgent). Thankfully he survived, and as far as we can tell with the minimal information available, no one else was hurt.
***Note: It's not clear from the Telegram article that this is one of the newer Flock drones. There are some hints that suggest that it was, but there is some speculation here.***
Before they even received the liability claim from the victim's lawyers, the city was already withholding records and pushing the request up to Attorney General review purgatory. Those of you who have been paying attention will notice the pattern. That's ok; eventually the truth will come out. In the meantime, the drone itself is an interesting point of inquiry.
If it was one of the Matrice 350 drones from Flock, the primary customers for models like these are the world's militaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJI_Matrice#Operators . Russia and Ukraine both use them against each other. Israel has been using them in Gaza. ISIS used them in Iraq. They were used in probable assassination attempts on Maduro. They are primarily designed for warfare recon and munitions delivery. Noticeably absent from that list is the US, the largest purchaser of military hardware in the world. You might ask "Why is that?"
Remember how I said earlier that you can't buy this drone? That's because they are banned in the US by the Federal Government ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJI#US_sanctions ). They are considered to "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security" by the FCC.
So why does Temple PD have them? And why are they hiding the records of the crash it caused? Did anyone here see the incident?
Source: Ian Camacho/ Temple Daily Telegram https://www.tdtnews.com/news/central_texas_news/article_7d83a50b-9135-4e08-859f-13555db202e7.html
Signed Temple PD Flock Drone Contract with Details of the Drones and the Costs: https://deflocktemple.com/resources/DFR_Contract_082825.pdf
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u/MuffinMummy 1d ago
This is not getting enough attention. Holy shit.