Urbana Mayor Thankful for U of I Police Drone… That Fails to Find Hit-and-Run Driver

My investigation into the University of Illinois’ police drone program.

As I wrote in my last Substack post, I’ve been investigating surveillance technology used by our local police here in my hometown of Urbana-Champaign. My article with Tara Goodarzi for Truthout explores the militarization of campus police at the University of Illinois and contracts with Israeli-based spyware company Cellebrite. Urbana city council is currently considering a police surveillance ordinance which would cover disclosure of contracts with companies like Cellebrite.

At a city council meeting on February 3, 2025, outgoing Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin made a speech obliquely championing police surveillance after public comment by myself and others supporting the ordinance. She thanked the University of Illinois police for using one of their drones to investigate a fatal car accident. It illustrates a belief in the infallibility of police technology.

In her speech, Mayor Marlin addressed the recent hit-and-run car accident on University Avenue that happened January 19, 2025, tragically killing two young women. She wanted to give an update.

I want to state clearly that I don’t make light of the loss of life or overlook the grief that the families and loved ones are experiencing. Still, I want to make the point that this accident was politicized to express unwavering support for the police.

The News-Gazette, our local right-wing newspaper, in its coverage of the accident had announced the nationality of the man responsible, who was first identified mistakenly from Mexico, and later found to be from Guatemala. They also highlighted that he has previously been deported. The man had fled the scene of the accident and was found by US Marshals in Texas on a bus headed for Mexico.

The accident occurred just a week after Trump’s inauguration, at the height of attacks “criminal aliens” and calls for “mass deportations.”

Contentious Council Exchange

With this as a backdrop, Mayor Marlin in her speech before council reiterated the nationality of the man responsible for the accident, describing him as an “individual who is a Guatemalan citizen.” Marlin’s speech, which had begun with budget cuts announced by the incoming administration and pivoted to the car accident, was interrupted by a buzzer signaling she had gone over the allotted three minutes, and she asked for an extension.

Grace Wilken, the council member who is behind the police surveillance ordinance spoke up, “I would say not necessary.” Other council members granted an extra two minutes. Marlin went on to thank the first responders from the police and fire department who arrived on the scene of the accident.

You can watch the contentious exchange at city council online here (40 min.).

Marlin continued, “We extend our thanks to the University of Illinois police department for supplying a drone to take photos and video of the crash scene on University Avenue.”

Sitting in the audience watching, I was surprised by mention of the U of I police drone and wondered how it had helped. So I filed a FOIA to learn more.

Fun With FOIAs

It turns out that the drone showed up late, failed to locate the man who fled on foot after the accident. After flying around for an hour, the drone was packed up and taken back to the police station.

According to a police report written by James McCartney, University of Illinois police officer and drone operator, he showed up at the scene of the accident at 1:59am. At 2:04am, he writes, “I launched a drone and began searching the area.” The driver who caused the crash had fled on foot heading south on Coler Avenue. Officer McCartney flew the drone over the residential neighborhood for over an hour. He concluded, “I was unable to locate any subjects near the crash vehicles or surrounding area.”

As FOIA’d documents show, the drone was not worthy of the mayor’s praises. Still, the drone was used as a prop to justify the need for such technology. The public is kept in the dark about the true effectiveness of such police toys.

I was also given police reports authored by University of Illinois police officer Nina Broadnax who, at the request of Urbana police, used their Milestone license readers plate to take video and photos of the suspect’s car. Of course, they already had the car and plates at the scene of the accident. Again, police surveillance technology was unnecessary.

F*ck Predictive Policing

Urbana voters didn’t fall for the rhetoric of “public safety” on February 25 when they rejected all three of the pro-police candidates. Urbana voters are smarter than that. Indeed, we live in a very well-educated town. Urbana is so hip that even the graffiti taggers know what’s up.

The week before Election Day, someone tagged a political sign of Mayor Marlin’s handpicked candidate, writing “fuck predictive policing” on a large campaign sign along Washington Street. It was a not-so-thinly veiled jab at the Urbana police chief who often cites the need for more “data” to solve crimes.

Freedom to Fly Drones

Police drones are not new to me or to Urbana-Champaign. In 2012, I discovered that Champaign County Sheriff’s Office was among the first police in Illinois to purchase a drone. The drone was never used because a deputy kept crashing it and it was too expensive to repair. Since then, drones have become easier to pilot and the cost has dropped, although they are still not cheap.

Illinois had for years held off on permitting police drones to fly. In 2022, there was a mass shooting at a 4^th of July parade in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago, by neo-fascist Robert Eugene Crimo III, who was recently in the news. Not long after, the Illinois legislature passed the “Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act” which, despite its name, laid the ground rules for how police could use drones.

In Sept. 2023, UIPD rolled out public relations campaign around acquisition of five drones, with a blog post and video demonstrating uses of drones at outdoor events where large crowds congregated. They initially spent $20,000 to purchase five new drones, one of which cost $10,000 as it was equipped with thermal-vision capability, also known as “infrared” sensors, which can see heat from bodies in the dark. Whether this was the drone used the night of the car accident in Urbana is not known.

According to contracts provided to me from my FOIA request, university police have since bought a sixth drone, and have currently spent $44,596.84 on its drone program, including training, licensing, batteries, and the drones themselves.

I also filed a FOIA for the drone flight log and apparently UIPD drones were not used during the pro-Gaza encampments on campus last spring, if that’s any relief. This is in line with the state law that prohibits spying on political protests.

Thank you for reading “Sentences” and consider making a donation. This is all additional reporting I have done with no financial support, except the individual contributions I get from readers like you!

In my next post, I’ll report on an immigration arrest that happened on Tuesday, March 5, 2025 in Champaign. I ran up on at least a dozen agents from three different federal agencies, more than I’ve ever encountered before. It was a little nerve-wracking to say the least. Stay tuned for more!

BD