We asked if the Boston Police Department is sharing footage from unmanned aerial vehicles with federal law enforcement agencies
UPDATE (Oct. 2, 2025): Boston Police Deployed 71 Drone Flights Over Caribbean Carnival
If you looked above the performers and floats at the Boston Dominican Parade in August, you might have spotted a drone buzzing in the sky.
While out covering the sights and sounds of the annual celebration, we captured video of a drone above Egleston Square on Aug. 17 at around 2pm.
The sighting was notable because of precedent. City records available online show the Boston Police Department flew 14 drones around the Dominican Parade in 2024, deploying them in the areas of (or stretching between) the Stop & Shop in Jackson Square and the Franklin Park Playstead.
So does the drone spotted this year at the intersection of Columbus Ave and Washington Street (near the Mobil gas station) belong to BPD? So far, we don’t know.
Who flew drones over the Dominican Parade and Caribbean Carnival?
The department has not answered a records request seeking information about any and all drones deployed over the Dominican Parade this year. We submitted it the day after that event, and were initially ignored. After sending a follow-up email and calling the media relations department, an officer confirmed for me via email that they had received my inquiry.
The 10 business days required by state law for a response to my records request (or a written explanation of why it couldn’t be fulfilled) came and went, and still nothing.
While waiting on that first request, another big annual gathering happened: Boston’s Caribbean Carnival. We went to cover that cultural festival as well, and submitted a records request the following Monday for the same kind of drone data.
To date, the BPD has not fulfilled that request either. (After following up with the department multiple times, we received an email on Sept. 3 confirming they received my request on Aug. 25. We also got a call from spokesperson Sgt. Det. John Boyle, who told me he was speaking to other people in the department in order to fulfill my request, but never received anything else after that.)
Does the BPD share drone surveillance footage with federal authorities?
The delays in fulfilling my requests are notable for several reasons. First, the BPD simply failed to comply with state law regarding records requests. The Massachusetts public records law requires agencies to respond to a public records request within 10 business days—or provide a written explanation for a delay or denial.
Second, there is historical context in play here. The ACLU of Massachusetts has previously documented concerns about the BPD failing to inform the public of drone purchases. The civil rights watchdog also documented the proliferation of drones used by various state agencies. Meanwhile, reporting by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism showed that a private drone vendor (which local law enforcement could contract with) secured a rare Federal Aviation Administration waiver “enabling small unmanned aircraft to conduct operations over human beings and moving vehicles.”
Delays are also notable because we questioned the BPD about whether information obtained by the department’s drones is shared with federal agencies. The City of Boston famously has a municipal law that prevents cops from engaging in civil immigration enforcement, and Mayor Michelle Wu has said that BPD won’t work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. But at the same time, the department has shared information with federal agencies for decades through the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a law enforcement data clearinghouse and catchall established in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
All of the above considered, it is reasonable to ask what, if any, information gathered by Boston police from widescale surveillance of events with a large immigrant presence may be shared with federal authorities. The ACLU’s resident surveillance expert, Kade Crockford, recently offered testimony to the Boston City Council on this matter. The hearing on the hub’s surveillance ordinance was held on Aug. 11, around the time of the Dominican Parade and Caribbean Carnival.
“We are dealing with a different federal government right now,” Crockford said in their opening statements. Clarifying that they weren’t directly accusing Boston police of intentionally colluding with the Trump administration on questionable actions, they added: “[The federal government knows] full well that here in Boston, the BPD is not meant to collaborate with … civil immigration enforcement. So how do we know that [federal officials] are telling the truth when they say, This is related to a criminal matter.”
We also reached out to the Massachusetts State Police to check if the unmanned aerial vehicles seen over these events belonged to them. A spokesperson said that the agency had not deployed drones over either the Dominican Parade or the Caribbean Carnival. My final request to the BPD on this matter was submitted via email on Sept. 9. We did not get a response, but in the interest of transparency, wrote to them that we will update this article if they share details after publication.
