ST. LOUIS — SMS Novel Films, the company that wants to use drones to surveil St. Louis, is looking for drone pilots as residents remain concerned about the program.
Residents say this all started when they found out SMS Novel Films was going to be surveilling the Gravois Park neighborhood later this month with intentions of combatting crime, but they say the story keeps changing.
“I feel like the thing that stayed consistent with the story is that this person has not engaged us. One time, when approached and asked about his plans, he rebuffed people. He has doubled down on what he wants to do despite getting pushed back,” St. Louis resident Sarah Phillips said.
Now the company says it's not going to tell anyone where their drone pilots are filming, calling on licensed pilots to come to St. Louis in February for a five-day work retreat to kick off the surveillance program -- SMS Live Stream.
Phillips says this is an invasion of privacy.
“I'm not a victim of domestic violence, for example. But I can imagine that if I were, I would be worried that somebody could just decide to do this. And there's no regulation. There's no oversight over that person who then wants to go and make that data available, apparently, to anybody who can pay for it,” Phillips said.
Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier says a major concern for her is who will have access to the data and video SMS plans to capture.
“Even thinking about, you know, you're a person who lives alone or someone's ability to record you coming and going to your house and having data and no idea where there's going, our children possibly being recorded at their school. It's just different things right now, but we want to make sure that we have some clear regulations and protections in place,” Sonnier said.
Sonnier says the board is moving forward with Board Bill 199 to tighten up St. Louis drone laws.
“I'm trying to propose some standards and ordinances, again, not to even necessarily prohibit you, but to make sure there's some regulation and that people in their community can feel comfortable with what's happening,” Sonnier said.
The board bill is currently in front of the public safety committee and public hearings on the measure are not scheduled yet but Sonnier says they're right around the corner.
SMS Novel Films CEO Jomo Johnson declined our interview request again saying they will not be doing any interviews until they launch the program.