Back in September, KHOU-11’s Jeff McShan reported (and to our knowledge, no city officials disputed) the following:
Sources tell 11 News that Mayor Bill White, and Police Chief Harold Hurtt came up with the idea to use drones — unmanned flying machines — to help with traffic mobility.
They could also be used for police tactical situations. Like the SWAT incident at NASA in April.
Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalva [sic] confirmed the department is close to making it happen.
“And what’s important and what needs to get out there is we are doing this in cooperation and assistance with the FAA,” said Montalva.[sic]
In November, KPRC-2’s Stephen Dean got wind of the fact that HPD was planning a secret test of the drones — and forced HPD into a hasty press conference because of his reporting:
Houston police cars were surrounding the land with a roadblock in place to check each of the dignitaries arriving for the invitation-only event. The invitation spelled out, “NO MEDIA ALLOWED.”
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt attended, along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and dozens of officers from various police agencies in the Houston area. Few of the guests would comment as they left the test site.
News Chopper 2 had a Local 2 Investigates team following the aircraft for more than one hour as it circled overhead. Its wings spanned 10 feet and it circled at an altitude of 1,500 feet. Operators from a private firm called Insitu, Inc. manned remote controls from inside the fleet of black trucks as the guests watched a live feed from the high-powered camera aboard the 40-pound aircraft.
“I wasn’t ready to publicize this,” Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo said. She and other department leaders hastily organized a news conference when they realized Local 2 Investigates had captured the entire event on camera.
“We still haven’t even decided how we were going to go forward on this task, so it seemed premature to me to announce this to the media,” Montalvo said. “But since, obviously, the media found out about it, then I don’t see any reason why just not go forward with what we have so far.”
Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used for “mobility” or traffic issues, evacuations during storms, homeland security, search and rescue, and also “tactical.” She admitted that could include covert police actions and she said she was not ruling out someday using the drones for writing traffic tickets.
A large number of the officers at the test site were assigned to the department’s ticket-writing Radar Task Force. Capt. Tom Runyan insisted they were only there to provide “site security,” even though KPRC cameras spotted those officers heavily participating in the test flight.
In two followup reports (here and here), Dean noted that the testing raised air traffic concerns.
None of Dean’s characterizations seems farfetched or unfair, in light of what he and competitor Jeff McShan have documented.
Chief Hurtt’s ghostblogger might beg to differ, though.
In today’s post on Chief Hurtt’s blog, the ghostblogger provides “FACTS to Correct Erroneous Allegations” from Dean, who “has alleged or insinuated the following things…” about HPD’s drone testing. What is most interesting about the list of “things” is that they rely on no direct quotes from Dean’s reporting. Rather, the ghostblogger creatively interprets the “things” that Mr. Dean has allegedly insinuated, and then goes on to rebut what is made to seem like a wild, off-the-mark accusation. It’s a fairly crude effort to smear Dean’s reporting.
Chief Hurtt’s ghostblogger may want to be a little more judicious. The blog’s last effort to smear a journalist (and an award-winning one at that) backfired.
