ST. LOUIS — In just a few days, the private drone company looking to surveil St. Louis city streets said it will launch its live-streaming program.
5 On Your Side’s Laura Barczewski talked with the company's owner for the first time on camera Wednesday.
Founder of SMS Novel Films Jomo Johnson said his company’s live-streaming drone service will start with just 3 hours a day in various areas of the city on Feb. 5.
“I do hope maybe an implicit, goal of what we do is that it can cause awareness that if you are a criminal or have criminal, motives, that you are being watched, that there's a capacity that you may be recognized,” Johnson said.
St. Louis residents have said they are worried about their privacy, but Johnson said he’s not trying to look into your windows.
“So residents can see that, ultimately, these drones are going to be operating so high, it's not going to be near home, it's not going to be in a person's backyard. It's not going to be an invasion of privacy,” Johnson said.
But residents organizing against SMS Novel said in a statement, “Let’s be clear: Mr. Johnson has for months refused to do even the slightest bit of community engagement around this issue, including refusing to speak with our Alderpeople or even SLMPD. Additionally, he has continued to flaunt city laws by failing to secure — or even apply for — a business license. If he launches his drones on Monday, then he will be doing so illegally. St. Louisans don’t want his surveillance drones in the sky. Period. We trust Mayor Jones’ administration will ensure these drones never take off, and we are eager for the Public Safety Committee to hear and pass Board Bill 199 to create sensible regulations of commercial drone activities for our city.”
St. Louis 7th Ward Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier said the board is putting the finishing touches on the bill regulating commercial drones in the city after meeting with FAA consultants.
She said city park rangers already stopped SMS Novel from flying over Forest Park earlier this month.
“Whenever you're on a park property and you want to do activity within a park, that's one of the areas that is regulated, and you do have to get a permit for activities," Sonnier said. "I have neighborhood organizations that have to get permits when they want to host certain activities. And so certainly if neighborhood organizations and local churches do, then someone who wants to operate drones again for commercial purposes of live streaming people's personal activities without their consent, you would need to follow a permit process as well."
When it comes to the data and the video the company streams, Johnson said the company won’t be holding onto that footage.
“So for our drone stream TV, the data is not saved, nor is it shared or nor is it sold. It's simply live-streamed. Only those subscribers who subscribe to the daily or weekly livestream will be able to have access to it. And again, it's livestream so it's not saved. So residents don't have to be concerned about, you know, themselves being in a movie or a film. This is simply to be able to provide really a unique look at various cities, including St. Louis,” Johnson said.
Sonnier said the city will be monitoring what happens if or when the drone streaming program is launched and enforce the laws, like permit requirements, where they are able to.
Johnson answered more of our questions regarding communication, safety and if the company would adhere to city regulations. Watch the full interview below.
You can also watch Alderwoman Sonnier’s full interview responding to the owner here.
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