Above photo: Las Vegas Police Department.
US-made drones fly above all major US cities.
Automatically uploading millions of images to a law enforcement database.
AI-powered quadcopter drones used by Israel in its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza are now being used to surveil US citizens, from protestors to spring breakers, in all major US cities, according to a report from the journalist project ¡Do Not Panic! published on 3 November.
Hundreds of drones manufactured by the US company Skydio were delivered to Israel after the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023 for use in the strip. Now, they are flying daily above all major US cities, including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Cleveland, and Jacksonville, while automatically uploading millions of images to an evidence database.
Skydio has an office in Israel and partners with DefenceSync – an Israeli military drone contractor.
The company has received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from Israeli-US venture capitalists, including Marc Andreessen’s firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This summer, Andreessen and Horowitz visited Israel to meet with tech companies founded by ex-Israeli army and Unit 8200 members.
Other Skydio investors include Next 47, which has an office in Israel headed by Moshe Zilberstein.
Zilberstein worked in the Israeli military’s computer spy center, Mamram, and Hercules Capital, whose managing director, Ella-Tamar Adnahan, is an Israeli-US citizen known as “Israel’s go-to tech banker in the US.”
Skydio drones were recently used by US police departments to gather information on demonstrators at the recent “No Kings” protests against US President Donald Trump, as well as by Yale University to spy on students protesting the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
In recent months, US immigration authorities have purchased 33 X10D Skydio drones, which they use to automatically track and pursue targets.
Skydio drones are piloted by AI, enabling them to operate without a human user. The drones have thermal imaging cameras, which can reconstruct buildings and other infrastructure in 3D.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) stated that it had conducted more than 20,000 drone flights using 41 Sydio drones in less than a year.
Many US police departments now employ the drones as “first responders,” sending them before humans when citizens request police assistance.
The drones automatically upload photos and video footage into a digital evidence management system created specifically for law enforcement.
Skydio is also a major supplier to the Department of Defense, raising questions about what information is, or will be, shared between the US military and domestic security agencies.
“Skydio shows once again how Gaza is the laboratory for weapons makers, the place where new surveillance and apartheid technologies are tested, before being refined and used in the West,” ¡Do Not Panic! wrote.
