By Joshua Rosenberg. March 30, 2026.
NEW ORLEANS — The French Quarter Management District (FQMD), a nonelected, state-created body, voted Monday to approve a budget amendment that would allow the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to purchase a drone that would operate in the French Quarter.
The $250,000 Skydio drone would not serve to make the French Quarter a more attractive and welcoming place, according to many of the city residents who spoke at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday. Including comments sent electronically, there were some 66 people who spoke out against the drone program. Four spoke in favor of it.
“I can tell you right now these drones will only make the city more dangerous for me,” Edith Romero, an organizer with a Eye on Surveillance (a coalition of local groups in New Orleans concerned with surveillance) said during the meeting, adding that her experience as an immigrant can’t help but inform her position on the issue. “ICE and CBP use drones to do raids and to kidnap my people,” she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, respectively. “This is the third time here saying please don’t give the weapons that arm separating the families of immigrants,” she said.
The FQMD is a state political subdivision, governed by a 13-person Board of Commissioners. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was seated alongside the FQMD on Monday, seated next to Police Captain Samuel Palumbo of the 8th District, which includes the French Quarter.
Palumbo pledged that the drone program is not a significant departure from how the agency already uses drones and that the drone will not become weaponized with tasers or facial recognition technology.
But further expansion of drone usage can be something of a Pandora’s Box, one of the residents opposed to the program said on Monday.
“One drone does not remain a party of one drone forever and we have masses of evidence that makes that plain,” this resident said. “In a 2023 report issued by the ACLU, they encouraged citizens to recognize that every permission and investment in drones is a green light to whatever version of those drones are going to come next: drones relying on AI, drones normalized in cities across the U.S., drones constantly hovering, drones with tasers, drones with guns,” they said, possibly referring to this report.
The FQMD voted on the $250,000 budget item. That was not the original ask.
At first the NOPD asked for $740,000 for their drone program. But a private donor stepped in to cover some $500,000. Residents asked the FQMD about the identity of the private donor, but their questions were ignored.
Skydio is an American company based in California. The company aided Israel in its genocide in Gaza. Skydio “…gives Israel ‘short-range reconnaissance drones’ capable of navigating obstacles autonomously and [producing] 3D scans of complex structures like buildings,’ according to Anwar Mhajne, writing in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs.
The budget item will apparently go before the New Orleans City Council, according to one of the FQMD Commissioners.
Ultimately, the FQMD had a chance to stand up for our rights, Romero said.
“This is not only an opportunity to say ‘no’ to a horrible investment — it’s an opportunity to say ‘yes’ for constitutional rights. This means our right to privacy, our right to the Fourth Amendment… this is also a moment where you can stand with our free speech…” she said.
Update: This story has been updated with more information. 3/31/26
Leave a Reply