New Delhi [India], December 13 (ANI): India’s overseas change reserves rose marginally, by USD 1.033 billion within the week that ended December 5 to USD 687.260 billion, pushed by a soar in gold reserves, the Reserve Bank of India’s newest ‘Weekly Statistical Supplement’ information confirmed. Over the previous few weeks, the foreign exchange kitty has been largely in a downtrend, apart from a number of. Still, the nation’s overseas change (foreign exchange) kitty is hovering near its all-time excessive of USD 704.89 billion, reached in September 2024. For the reported week (that ended December 5), India’s overseas forex belongings (FCA), the most important element of overseas change reserves, stood at USD 556.880 billion, down USD 151 million. The RBI information confirmed that gold reserves at present stand at USD 106.984 billion, up USD 1.033 billion from the earlier week. The worth of the safe-haven asset gold has been on a pointy uptrend over latest months, maybe amid heightened world uncertainties and sturdy funding demand. After the most recent financial coverage assessment assembly, the RBI had mentioned that the nation’s overseas change reserves had been adequate to cowl greater than 11 months of merchandise imports.
Overall, India’s exterior sector stays resilient, and the RBI is assured it could comfortably meet exterior financing necessities.
In 2023, India added round USD 58 billion to its overseas change reserves, contrasting with a cumulative decline of USD 71 billion in 2022. In 2024, reserves rose by simply over USD 20 billion. So far in 2025, the foreign exchange kitty has elevated by about USD 47-48 billion, based on information. Foreign change reserves, or FX reserves, are belongings held by a nation’s central financial institution or financial authority, primarily in reserve currencies such because the US dollar, with smaller parts within the Euro, Japanese Yen, and Pound Sterling. The RBI typically intervenes by managing liquidity, together with promoting {dollars}, to forestall a steep depreciation of the rupee. The RBI strategically buys {dollars} when the Rupee is robust and sells when it weakens. The Indian rupee has been underneath stress for a number of causes. It has already weakened by over 5 per cent this yr on a cumulative foundation. (ANI)
(New York) – Chinese authorities have formally charged well-known journalist and creator Du Bin () with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” Human Rights Watch stated at the moment.
Police in Beijing took Du, 53, into custody on October 15, 2025, a day earlier than he had scheduled journey to Japan, his sister stated in an announcement. He has since been held at Beijing’s Shunyi Detention Center. He faces as much as 5 years in jail underneath article 293 of China’s Criminal Law, and as much as 10 years if discovered to be “seriously disrupting public order.”
“The baseless charges against a prominent journalist like Du Bin highlight the growing intolerance for dissent under Xi Jinping’s leadership,” stated Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should free Du Bin immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges.”
Du’s arrest seems to be associated to his books, which the authorities allege “attack national leaders.” However, Du’s household have stated that they’ve but to obtain discover of a proper prison arrest or cost, in obvious violation of the notification necessities in China’s Criminal Procedure Law.
This is the third time that the authorities have detained Du, however the first time he has been formally charged ().
The authorities detained Du for a month in 2013 for releasing a documentary, “Above the Ghosts’ Head: The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp,” and a ebook, “The Tiananmen Massacre.” He was detained for a month in 2020 for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” due to his books important of the Chinese authorities. Du’s books, all revealed overseas, embody the “Changchun Hunger Siege,” a historic account revealed in 2017 concerning the deaths from hunger of a whole lot of hundreds of civilians in Changchun in the course of the Chinese civil conflict.
Du beforehand labored as a journalist and photographer for numerous home and worldwide shops, together with the New York Times, Beijing Youth Daily(), and Workers’ Daily().
Under Xi Jinping’s management for the previous decade, the authorities have arrested and prosecuted numerous Chinese journalists in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and affiliation. Reporters Without Border has reported that 121 journalists are at present detained in China.
In November, Beijing’s High Court upheld a seven-year sentence for Dong Yuyu, 62, a journalist arrested in February 2022 on espionage fees whereas he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat. Dong had been writing for a Chinese authorities newspaper, Guangming Daily, for 35 years earlier than his arrest.
In September, a court docket sentenced a citizen-journalist, Zhang Zhan, 42, to 4 years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” Zhang had beforehand served 4 years in jail underneath the identical article for her reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan.
After Zhang’s second conviction, the United Nations excessive commissioner for human rights, Volker Trk, stated the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble … given its broad wording and the wide scope of its potential application to those exercising their rights, including freedom of expression and association,” is “at variance with China’s international human rights obligations.”
In June 2024, a court docket in Guangzhou sentenced a feminist activist and journalist, Huang Xueqin, 37, to 5 years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power” for her writing, together with concerning the 2019 Hong Kong protests and her position within the #MeTooMovement.
In Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, 77, a outstanding pro-democracy media tycoon and proprietor of the shuttered Apple Daily is dealing with as much as life in jail on two fabricated “foreign collusion” fees underneath Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law.
“Concerned governments should publicly raise Du Bin’s case with the Chinese government and press for his immediate and unconditional release,” Uluyol stated. “By bringing baseless charges against its critics, Beijing is merely broadcasting to the world the fragility of its rule.”
Beijing is making a daring bid to form how the world thinks about warfare, peace, and energy within the a long time forward
China’s newly launched white paper on arms management, disarmament, and nonproliferation comes at a second of deep strategic flux. The doc arrives not simply as a technical replace on coverage, however as a political gesture – an try and form the rising world order at a time when multipolarity is not theoretical and US-China rivalry more and more defines the worldwide panorama. Although framed within the language of cooperation and stability, the white paper is unmistakably strategic: China is laying down its personal ideas for what Twenty first-century arms management must be, in search of each to justify its present trajectory and to mould future worldwide expectations.
What stands out most isn’t any single announcement, however the white paper’s general structure. It blends conventional nuclear themes with a sweeping imaginative and prescient of safety that encompasses outer house, our on-line world, synthetic intelligence, and the technological sinews of future battle. It casts doubt on US army alliances, questions the equity of current arms-control calls for, and hyperlinks China’s personal method to a broader agenda of worldwide governance.
For years, Washington has pressed Beijing to affix trilateral arms-control talks with the US and Russia, arguing that China’s increasing capabilities will destabilize strategic balances until introduced below some type of verifiable constraint. US President Donald Trump made this a signature demand, insisting that future nuclear agreements could be incomplete with out China on the desk. Beijing rejected the concept outright, calling it “unfair, unreasonable and impractical.” That chorus echoes unmistakably within the new white paper.
The doc systematically reframes why China believes it shouldn’t be handled as a peer competitor to the world’s two largest nuclear powers. It emphasizes “minimum deterrence,”“no first use,” and the “utmost restraint” in arsenal measurement – positions China has acknowledged for many years however now deploys with renewed vigor. By embedding these factors in a broad narrative about equity and fairness, Beijing is trying to shift the diplomatic baseline. The message is evident: China won’t be coerced into talks structured across the assumptions or preferences of its rivals.
At the identical time, the white paper adopts a tone that stops simply in need of naming the US immediately. Instead, it warns towards “certain countries” increasing their arsenals, forward-deploying missiles, enhancing alliances, and adjusting nuclear doctrines in destabilizing methods. This tactic preserves diplomatic deniability whereas leaving little doubt concerning the meant viewers. It additionally grants China narrative consistency: Claiming the ethical excessive floor whereas portray the US because the supply of instability.
Implicit within the white paper’s language is a rising frustration with the US-Japan safety partnership. References to expanded deployments within the Asia-Pacific, strengthened regional alliances, and changes to nuclear postures all level towards the evolving US-Japan agenda. As Washington and Tokyo deepen missile-defense cooperation, combine extra superior strike capabilities, and align extra carefully on deterrence, Beijing sees encirclement quite than stability.
To a worldwide viewers, China’s framing serves two functions. First, it makes use of historical past – subtly invoking the eightieth anniversary of the tip of World War II and Japanese aggression – to place itself as a guardian of hard-earned peace and post-war order. Second, it characterizes US-Japan protection cooperation as an engine of insecurity. This rhetorical technique is designed not for Washington or Tokyo, which is able to dismiss it, however for the broader worldwide group that China hopes to influence that Asia-Pacific safety shouldn’t be formed solely by US alliances.
China’s nuclear part is rigorously calibrated. It reiterates positions lengthy acquainted to arms-control practitioners – no first use, no deployment overseas, and minimal mandatory capabilities. This is continuity, however continuity with a function: The doc makes use of these factors as diplomatic leverage.
By emphasizing predictability and stability, Beijing alerts reliability to a world uneasy about nuclear brinkmanship. This has a second, extra tactical perform: It strengthens China’s declare that it shouldn’t but be bracketed with the US and Russia, whose vastly bigger arsenals justify their particular disarmament obligations. In essence, China argues that strategic inequality stays a truth of worldwide life – and that arms management should mirror it.
There is, after all, one other layer to this argument. China is increase its nuclear forces, increasing its missile silos, and creating new supply techniques. Calling its posture ‘minimal deterrence’ might quickly stretch credibility. But Beijing’s purpose right here isn’t quantitative transparency; it’s narrative insulation. By asserting that its arsenal stays rooted in restraint, China goals to preemptively deflect criticism because it continues modernizing.
Where the white paper turns into actually forward-looking – and politically consequential – is in its therapy of outer house, our on-line world, and AI. These are usually not merely add-on points; they type the ideological core of China’s future-oriented safety imaginative and prescient.
Beijing positions these domains because the rising entrance strains of strategic competitors and argues that they require pressing governance. This aligns carefully with China’s stance in different worldwide boards: Pushing for UN-centered norms that constrain army makes use of of those applied sciences whereas emphasizing peaceable improvement.
The motivations run deeper than altruism. China is quickly gaining floor in exactly the applied sciences that may outline future energy. By advocating early for sturdy governance frameworks, it seeks to affect the rule-making course of earlier than the US and its allies consolidate dominance.
This is among the paper’s clearest alerts: China intends to play a lead position in defining the foundations of next-generation warfare. It sees rising applied sciences not merely as instruments, however as arenas the place political energy is negotiated.
One of probably the most vital themes woven by the white paper is China’s aspiration to develop into not only a participant in world governance, however a shaper of it. The doc repeatedly stresses equity, inclusivity, and the position of the UN – language focused at Global South international locations which are typically excluded from Western-designed safety structure.
By positioning itself because the champion of ‘indivisible safety’, China is courting the Global South, suggesting that Western arms-control regimes privilege the robust and constrain the weak. The technique is evident: Build normative alliances that strengthen Beijing’s legitimacy as a worldwide rule-maker.
China’s new white paper isn’t a passive coverage doc. It is a strategic declaration: An try and reframe arms management on phrases that mirror China’s pursuits, ambitions, and worldview. It pushes again towards US expectations, challenges alliance-based safety, promotes a UN-centric governance mannequin, and stakes a declare in rising technological domains.
Whether the world accepts this framing is one other query. Washington and Tokyo will see self-serving narrative quite than restraint. Many creating international locations might even see a associate resisting Western dominance. Meanwhile, the remainder of the world will confront a rising actuality: The way forward for arms management will not be negotiated solely in Washington and Moscow, however in a broader geopolitical area the place China is more and more assured, assertive, and able to lead.
New Delhi [India], December 12 (ANI): Yuvraj Singh Sandhu continued his stellar run on the PGTI circuit as he clinched the Delhi Vishwa Samudra Open title, marking his sixth title of the season. The in-form golfer stated the achievement left him feeling grateful, motivated and excited for what lies forward.
‘To be very sincere, it feels very nice. I’m grateful to be standing right here, successful six occasions this season however then once more, there’s at all times one thing extra to stay up for and I’m positively going to get pleasure from this win. I’m going to benefit from the sixth win of the season. I’m going to cherish it with my household and mates however I’m positively grateful and simply pleased with the sixth win,’ he advised ANI.
Looking forward, Yuvraj expressed his enthusiasm for representing India on the upcoming Asian Games.
‘Absolutely, Asian Games has at all times been one thing that I at all times stay up for. Asian Games, Olympics – it is one thing that an athlete at all times appears as much as,’ he stated.
‘I’m actually excited. I travelled to Japan to start with of the 12 months, so I’m roughly conscious of the taking part in situations there. So I’m going to practise accordingly and work with my crew accordingly and hopefully have a great Asian Games season as effectively,’ he famous.
A decided Yuvraj Sandhu, getting back from a heartbreaking runner-up end in Jaipur final week, dominated proceedings with a ultimate spherical of six-under 66 to register a thumping eight-shot win on the INR 2 crore Vishwa Samudra Open 2025 offered by Kapil Dev performed on the revered Delhi Golf Club (DGC).
The Chandigarh-based Yuvraj (73-69-66-66), who shot a second straight bogey-free 66, totaled 14-under 274 for the week. As a consequence, Sandhu picked up the winner’s cheque value Rs 30 lakh to take an unassailable lead within the PGTI Ranking along with his season’s earnings transferring to INR 1,61,67,100.
The 28-year-old Yuvraj thus emerged because the 2025 PGTI Order of Merit champion and sealed his berth on the DP World Tour for subsequent 12 months.
Sandhu’s spectacular sixth victory of the season helped him match the PGTI file for many titles in a season set by Manu Gandas in 2022. Yuvraj additionally equalled the file for the bottom successful whole at DGC (14-under 274) set by Viraj Madappa in 2021.
N Thangaraja (73-66-75-68) of Sri Lanka completed a distant runner-up at six-under 282 following his final spherical of 68. Thangaraja collected the runners-up cheque of INR 20 lakh to maneuver up two spots to second place within the PGTI Ranking along with his season’s earnings studying INR 1,08,57,488.
Akshay Sharma (five-under 283), Manu Gandas (three-under 285) and Rashid Khan (two-under 286) completed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Yuvraj Sandhu, who started the day with a one-shot lead, made early strides in direction of the title with birdies on the primary two holes the place he made an up and down from the bunker and a 12-feet conversion. Yuvraj went on so as to add 4 extra birdies thereafter to comfortably march to his fifteenth profession title as the remainder of the sphere struggled to maintain tempo with him.
Yuvraj’s father, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, spoke about his son’s achievements.
‘I am unable to specific myself. Sometimes you are feeling you do not have the phrases to say so and you’ve got tears in your eyes, your coronary heart full of emotion. That form of feeling is there,’ he stated.
‘See, it has been a really satisfying journey. When you see your son develop into a number one Indian golfer and successful one occasion after the opposite and also you begin getting identified by your son’s identify, I believe that is the most effective factor to occur for any father. So that is the form of feeling I’ve.’
Yuvraj mom, Baljit Sandhu, additionally expressed her desires for her son’s future.
Sharing her religion and help, she stated, ‘I’m at all times in my zone. I simply pray. I’m at all times praying with Babaji. I’m at all times there. He’s the one and he’ll assist him out from all over the place.’ (ANI)
A Chula Vista police cruiser. (Photo courtesy of Chula Vista Police Department)
A 24-year-old man died Tuesday evening after being stabbed close to a comfort retailer within the South Bay and the Chula Vista Police Department mentioned a suspect is in custody.
Officers had been referred to as round 9:45 p.m. to an AMPM on Palomar Street, the place they discovered the sufferer with a number of stab wounds.
He was taken to UCSD Medical Center and later pronounced lifeless. His title is being withheld pending household notification.
Investigators decided the assault occurred on the 1100 block of Trenton Avenue. Police later arrested 21-year-old Gunnar Martin, who was booked into San Diego County jail on suspicion of homicide.
Anyone with data is requested to contact San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
Federal courthouse in downtown San Diego. (Photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)
A person convicted within the kidnapping and killing of an 18-year-old U.S. citizen in Tijuana was sentenced in San Diego federal courtroom Wednesday to life in jail.
Brian Alexis Patron Lopez, 24, was discovered responsible by a San Diego federal jury for the kidnapping and capturing loss of life of Miguel Anthony Rendon, a San Diego resident who was kidnapped from a Tijuana lodge, then overwhelmed and tortured whereas his captors demanded a ransom of cash or medication from his household.
Prosecutors say Rendon had initially agreed to move simply over two kilos of methamphetamine throughout the border, however stole the bundle, resulting in the retaliatory kidnapping in May 2020 by Patron Lopez and others.
Following the kidnapping and torture, prosecutors say Patron Lopez took Rendon to a abandoned hillside and shot him a number of instances. Mexican authorities found his physique on the hillside a couple of week later.
Four others have been charged within the case for numerous roles within the abduction, pleaded responsible, and have been sentenced to jail phrases starting from 5 years to almost a dozen years behind bars.
Patron Lopez was sentenced to 2 phrases of life imprisonment for counts of hostage taking leading to loss of life and conspiracy to commit hostage taking leading to loss of life. Those counts carry necessary minimal sentences of life in jail.
He additionally acquired a 35-year sentence for a depend of intentional killing whereas engaged in drug trafficking.
All three jail phrases can be served concurrently.
Defense legal professional Meghan Blanco argued Wednesday that regardless of the necessary life phrases, such a sentence represented a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s provisions towards merciless and strange punishment.
Blanco stated her consumer was 18 years outdated on the time of the killing with no prior prison historical past, but was dealing with a disproportionately increased sentence than his co-defendants. The legal professional stated that whereas prosecutors alleged Patron Lopez was the shooter, the jury’s verdict contained no particular findings indicating their perception that he was the shooter.
U.S. District Judge William Hayes stated that per his information of the case because the choose who sat via the trial, he believed Patron Lopez was concerned within the sufferer’s kidnapping and torture, and was additionally “the executioner.”
The choose additionally stated per his overview of different circumstances involving necessary life sentences, it could not be unconstitutional to impose life sentences towards Patron Lopez.
Wednesday’s sentencing listening to additionally included a press release from Emma Medrano, the sufferer’s mom.
“I want him to understand we are living a life sentence too, a life without Anthony’s voice, his smile, his future,” she stated. “I want this man to carry the weight of what he did for the rest of his life.”
A San Diego police cruiser on the scene of an investigation. (File picture courtesy of the San Diego Police Department)
A 60-year-old man was struck and killed by a automobile whereas driving his bicycle south of state Route 56 in Rancho Peñasquitos, authorities mentioned Thursday.
The collision that killed the person occurred round 5:35 p.m. Wednesday. A 51-year-old girl behind the wheel of a northbound 2019 Toyota Camry collided with the rear tire of the bicycle at 12900 Salmon River Road, in line with the San Diego Police Department.
Police mentioned the driving force “did not see” the bicyclist. He was pronounced useless on the scene.
Driving below the affect was not believed to be an element within the collision, however officers with SDPD’s Traffic Division are investigating.
Authorities urged anybody with info relating to the crash to name the police or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
Lakewood police arrested a 41-year-old man and charged him with the housebreaking and homicide of an aged girl in her dwelling this week, in keeping with a news launch from the division.
Arthur Joseph Maestas IV was charged with first-degree homicide, first-degree arson, first-degree housebreaking and a parole violation.
Lakewood Police Make Arrest in Burglary / Homicide
12/11/25 LK25-036770
A person has been arrested following a housebreaking turned murder over the weekend that killed an 83-year-old Lakewood girl.
On 12/6/25 at roughly 7:10 P.M., Lakewood Police had been referred to as to a house on the… pic.twitter.com/7KEyDhcV3E
On Dec. 6, one in every of 83-year-old Elizabeth Johnson’s youngsters got here to verify on her and located her useless inside her dwelling within the 300 block of South Kendall Street in japanese Lakewood. A window had been damaged in and the house had been ransacked. It additionally appeared {that a} fireplace had been began, in keeping with Lakewood police.
Maestas is held within the Jefferson County jail. The division didn’t present additional particulars on how they related Maestas to the crime.
KYOTO, Dec 13 (News On Japan) –
The Kanji of the Year for 2025 was introduced at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto on December twelfth, with the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation deciding on the character for bear for the primary time after nationwide sightings, record-high harm and accidents.
At Kiyomizu, Seihan Mori, the chief priest, brushed the character in massive strokes throughout a sheet of conventional Japanese paper measuring roughly 1.5 meters tall and 1.3 meters extensive. The annual occasion started in 1995 and marks its thirty first version this 12 months, with submissions gathered by the affiliation’s web site and postcards from throughout the nation. Out of 189,122 complete entries, bear obtained 23,346 votes.
Bear-related incidents had a deep affect on day by day life all through 2025, as sightings unfold into city areas, forcing the cancellation of occasions and short-term college closures. Attention additionally centered on the return of 4 pandas from Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, to China.
The second-most chosen character was rice, which trailed the best choice by solely 180 votes and mirrored each the surge in rice costs and the inauguration of U.S. President Trump. Third place went to excessive, related to persistent inflation and the rise of Sanae Takaichi, who grew to become Japan’s first feminine prime minister.
As 2025 enters its last weeks, Kiyomizu Temple as soon as once more served because the stage for the announcement. Among these predicting the result was Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, who mentioned, with out breaking from her practice of thought, “I thought it would be one of these two, and I really believed it had to be one or the other. This year in politics began with rice, and in the second half it led to the establishment of the Takaichi administration, whose approval rating thankfully remains high, though rice prices are also still high.”
The character unveiled shortly after 2 p.m. was bear, chosen in opposition to a backdrop of rising encounters nationwide that pushed each the variety of victims and fatalities to file highs. Rice adopted in second place after reaching its highest common value on file, whereas excessive got here in third, symbolizing each Takaichi’s historic premiership and the broader squeeze of rising client costs.
In a windowless room at Denver police headquarters on a current Thursday afternoon, Officer Chris Velarde activated a police drone to research a possible automobile break-in.
Officer Chris Velarde flies a drone and displays reside footage from its digicam from Denver Police Department headquarters on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Several flooring above, the drone launched from the roof and flew itself — basically on autopilot — to the location of the decision, reported as a person breaking right into a automobile with a crowbar close to the Santa Fe Arts District.
The drone whizzed alongside, 200 ft up, in a straight line throughout blocks, buildings and streets in the course of the roughly mile-long flight from police headquarters at 1331 Cherokee St. Velarde didn’t decide up the Xbox video-game controller that manually pilots the drone till it reached the realm of the decision. Then he took management and trolled the block for the supposed break-in, watching reside video footage transmitted from the drone on his laptop monitor as he flew.
After a couple of moments, Velarde noticed two individuals jiggering the passenger-side window of a automobile. He zoomed in on the pair, and on the automobile’s license plate. He ran the plate to see whether or not the automobile was stolen; it was not. The individuals on the road didn’t search for. They didn’t appear to know a police drone was hovering above them, that they had been being recorded and watched a mile away by officers and a reporter.
Two extra individuals joined the pair on the automobile’s window and Velarde made the decision — this didn’t appear to be a automobile break-in. More probably, somebody had simply locked their keys of their automobile. He cleared the decision with 911 dispatchers and informed them there was no must ship an officer to the scene. Then he despatched the drone again to headquarters; it flew itself to the rooftop dock, touchdown autonomously on a platform stamped with brilliant blue-and-yellow QR codes.
The Denver Police Department started testing drones as first responders — that’s, sending them out on 911 calls — in mid-October after signing up for 2 free pilot applications from rival drone firms Skydio and Flock Safety. The effort has raised issues amongst privateness advocates, Denver politicians and the town’s police oversight group, notably relating to the division’s contract with Flock, the corporate behind the town’s controversial community of automated license-plate readers.
Police see the drones as a strategy to velocity up call-response instances and supply extra info to officers as they arrive on scene, bettering, they are saying, each public security and officer security. If a drone arrives at a scene earlier than officers, and the drone pilot can inform police on the bottom that the person with the knife truly put down the weapon earlier than the officers arrived, that helps everybody, police stated.
“The more knowledge, information and intelligence that we can provide our officers on the ground, the better methods that they can use to respond to certain situations, which may cause them to not escalate unnecessarily,” stated Cmdr. Clifford Barnes, who heads the division’s Cyber Bureau.
Critics say the eyes within the sky increase critical privateness issues each with how the drones and the information they acquire are used now, and with how they could be used sooner or later because the expertise quickly adjustments. They fear that the drones might create a citywide surveillance community with few authorized guardrails, that the footage they acquire can be used to coach personal firms’ AI algorithms or that police will misuse rising AI capabilities, like facial recognition.
“When it comes to the decision of, are we going to use this thing that could potentially increase public safety, that will erode privacy rights — no one should get to decide the public is willing to give away our constitutional rights, except the people,” stated Anaya Robinson, public coverage director on the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. “And when law enforcement makes that decision for us, it becomes extremely problematic.”
Almost 300 drone flights in 55 days
So far, solely Skydio drones have flown as first responders over Denver.
Denver police signed a zero-dollar contract with Flock — with out public announcement — in August for a year-long pilot of drones as first responders, however the firm has but to arrange its autonomous plane. Skydio, alternatively, moved shortly to get drones within the air after Denver police in October signed a contract to check as much as 4 of the corporate’s drones throughout a free six-month pilot.
Skydio’s drones can attain a few 2-mile radius across the Denver police headquarters. The firm advertises a prime velocity of 45 mph with 40 minutes of flight time; Denver pilots have discovered the drones common round 28 mph and round 25 minutes of battery life per flight.
From the primary flight on Oct. 15 by way of Tuesday, two Skydio drones flew 297 instances, in line with knowledge supplied by Denver police in response to an open information request. Most of these flights — 199 — had been to reply requires service; one other 82 had been coaching flights, in line with the information.
Skydio drones additionally surveilled occasions — a operate police name “event overwatch” — seven instances, the police knowledge reveals. Overwatch may embrace flying over a protest to trace the place the demonstrators are headed and alert officers on the bottom for site visitors management, Barnes stated. (The police knowledge confirmed that every one seven overwatch flights occurred on Oct. 18, the day of Denver’s “No Kings” rally.)
The drones flew to 29 calls about an individual with a weapon, 21 disturbances, 20 assaults in progress, a dozen suspicious occurrences and 11 hold-up alarms, in line with knowledge from Denver’s 911 dispatch information. The drones additionally flew to 39 different forms of calls, together with experiences of prowlers, fights, burglaries, home violence and suicidal individuals.
The most typical end result for a name was that the officers had been unable to find an incident or the suspect was gone by the point the drone or cops arrived, the information present. Across about 200 requires service that included drone responses, police made 22 arrests and issued one quotation, the dispatch knowledge reveals.
When responding to requires service, the drones reached the scene earlier than patrol officers 88% of the time, the police knowledge reveals. A drone was the only real police response in 80 of 199 requires service, or about 40% of the time.
Barnes stated answering calls with solely a drone improves police effectivity.
“If an officer on the ground doesn’t need to respond, and the drone pilot is comfortable with cancelling the other officers coming, we can assign those officers to more important, more pressing matters, so call-response times come down,” he stated.
That strategy raises questions on what the drones (that are outfitted with three totally different cameras and a thermal imager) can and might’t see, and the way officers are making selections about name responses with out truly chatting with anybody on the scene, the ACLU’s Robinson stated.
“Humans have bias,” he stated. Drone pilots could be extra inclined to ship officers to a possible automobile break-in in a low-income neighborhood and extra probably to not in a higher-income neighborhood, he stated. Or they may miss one thing from above that they might have seen at road degree.
Officer Chris Velarde flies a drone and displays reside footage from its digicam from Denver Police Department headquarters on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
But minimizing in-person police interactions with residents, notably in over-policed neighborhoods, may also be a optimistic, stated Julia Richman, chair of Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board, which supplies civilian oversight of the police division.
“Where my head goes is the other outcome, where they roll up on those people who are trying to get keys out of the car and then they shoot them,” she stated. “Actually, (the drone-only response) seems like a really good outcome.”
The oversight group has talked with Denver police over the past two years about creating its drone program, she stated. The division created a seven-page coverage to information their use; the coverage goals to make sure “civil rights and reasonable expectations of privacy are a key component of any decision made to deploy” a drone.
But Richman stated she was shocked by points of the police division’s pilot applications regardless of the continued conversations with division management.
“What was never discussed, not once, was the idea of a third party running those drones or those drones being autonomous,” she stated, referring to the drone firms. “What has changed with this latest pilot is the key features and key aspects that would create public concern had never been discussed with us.”
Both Flock and Skydio promote autonomous options powered by synthetic intelligence. Skydio makes use of AI for its autonomous flight paths, impediment avoidance and monitoring individuals and vehicles.
Flock, which additionally gives autonomous flight, advertises its drones as integrating with its automated license-plate readers. The license-plate readers — there are greater than 100 round Denver — mechanically {photograph} each automobile that passes by them. If a license plate is stolen or concerned in a criminal offense, the license-plate readers alert police inside seconds.
Police Chief Ron Thomas and Mayor Mike Johnston defended the surveillance community as a useful crime-solving software this yr in opposition to mounting public discontent round how a lot knowledge the machines collected and the way that knowledge was used — notably round sharing info with the federal authorities for the needs of immigration enforcement.
That privateness debate round Flock’s license plate readers unfolded in communities throughout Colorado and nationwide this yr. In Loveland, the police division for a time allowed U.S. Border Patrol brokers to entry its Flock cameras earlier than blocking that entry. In Longmont, councilmembers voted Wednesday to search for alternate options to interchange the 20 Flock license plate readers in that metropolis.
Flock in August introduced it was pausing operations with federal businesses over the widespread issues.
When Denver City Council members, some pushed by privateness issues, voted in opposition to persevering with Flock’s license-plate readers in May, Johnston prolonged the surveillance anyway by way of a free five-month contract extension with Flock in October that didn’t require approval from the council. Against that backdrop, Denver police quietly signed on for Flock’s drone pilot in August.
Barnes stated the police division is not going to use any license-plate reader capabilities obtainable on Flock drones. Such a characteristic would represent “random surveillance,” which is prohibited below the division’s drone coverage. The drones by no means fly with out an officer’s direct involvement, he added.
The blue 2-mile-radius line seen on a pc display reveals the vary of Denver police Skydio drones flown from Denver Police headquarters. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The coverage additionally prohibits drones from filming anyplace an individual has an inexpensive expectation of privateness except police have a warrant, and says officers ought to take “reasonable precautions … to avoid inadvertently recording or transmitting images of areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Denver police do obtain search warrants to fly drones for specific operations exterior of the drones-as-first-responder program. In October, a Denver police detective sought and obtained a warrant to fly a drone over a capturing suspect’s house in Cherry Hills Village to test whether or not a truck concerned within the capturing was parked on the wooded property.
The warrant famous that when driving house from anyplace exterior Cherry Hills Village, the suspect couldn’t attain his home with out passing by Flock license-plate readers, and that photographs from these license-plate readers instructed the truck was on the property.
Denver Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Councilman Kevin Flynn each informed The Post they weren’t conscious of the police division’s Skydio drone pilot earlier than listening to about it from the newspaper, though they’re each on the town’s Surveillance Technology Task Force. The new group started assembly in August largely to contemplate Flock license-plate readers, in addition to different forms of surveillance expertise, Gonzales-Gutierrez stated.
“We haven’t talked about it in the task force, and the charge of our work in the task force is to come up with those guardrails that need to be put in place for these types of technology being utilized by law enforcement,” she stated. “I feel like they just keep moving on without us being able to complete our work.”
Police don’t want permission from the City Council to hold out the pilot applications, Gonzales-Gutierrez stated, however she was disillusioned by the shortage of communication and collaboration from the division.
Flynn sees the potential of police drones, notably in rushing up officer response instances, which might generally be dismal within the far-flung areas of his southwestern district.
“If a drone can get there to a 911 call and it can help an officer at headquarters assess the scene before a staffed car could get there, I would love that,” he stated.
But he desires to make sure they’re utilized in a approach that respects residents’ rights. He wouldn’t assist utilizing the drones for basic patrolling or surveillance, he stated.
“This pilot is an excellent opportunity to test all of those boundaries and see if there are ways to operate a system that can be very useful for public safety without crossing boundaries,” he stated.”…And perhaps we don’t hold utilizing them. That is the purpose of a pilot.”
‘These are flying cops’
The Skydio drones movie from the second they’re launched till they drop in to land.
When the drone is on its strategy to a name — flying on the 200-foot altitude restrict set by the Federal Aviation Administration — its cameras stay pointed on the horizon. In Denver’s denser neighborhoods, the Skydio drones at that top flew amongst buildings, generally at eye-level with balconies, workplaces and house home windows, in line with video of 4 flights obtained by The Post by way of an open information request.
“What if someone is in their apartment unit in one of these giant buildings and they’re changing, and they have their window open because they’re way up high and they don’t think anyone is watching them?” Gonzales-Gutierrez stated. “That is crazy.”
The drones buzzed over rooftop decks, balconies and elevated house complicated swimming pools, the movies present. On one journey, a drone flew previous the Colorado State Capitol Building, recording three individuals on a balcony on the tower below the constructing’s golden dome. Another time, the drone pilot zoomed in on a license plate so tightly that the automobile’s small, ornamental “LOVE” decal was clearly seen.
Flynn famous {that a} 200-foot altitude would put the drones nicely above many of the properties in his less-dense district, and that individuals on their porches or balconies aren’t someplace personal.
“If someone is out on a balcony, sitting there reading a book… generally speaking, if you are out in public there’s no expectation of privacy,” he stated.
The Skydio drones recorded about 54 hours of footage within the first eight weeks of their operation, in line with knowledge supplied by the police division. Police management opted to have the drones’ cameras on and recording each time the drone is in flight to spice up transparency about how the drones are getting used, Barnes stated.
“It makes sense to keep the camera rolling,” Barnes stated. “Then, if there’s an allegation, we just make sure that footage is recorded and treated like digital evidence, uploaded to the evidence management platform so it could be reviewed as necessary. We’re just trying to make sure we establish that balance, being as transparent as possible.”
Drone footage unrelated to felony investigations is mechanically deleted after 60 days, he stated. While it’s retained, it’s saved in an proof system that retains a file of anybody who seems to be at it. The drone unit’s sergeant, Brent Kohls, additionally audits the flight experiences month-to-month. (Footage utilized in felony investigations can be on the identical retention schedule as body-worn digicam footage, police stated.)
Kohls famous it might be uncommon for the drone footage to be considered solely by the pilot. The feed is usually displayed on the wall of the police division’s Real-Time Crime Center because it is available in.
ACLU lawyer Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the group’s speech, privateness and expertise mission, would quite see police hold the recording off whereas flying a drone to a name, even when the digicam continues to be livestreaming to police headquarters. In that situation, a drone pilot may nonetheless see a girl tanning topless on her rooftop pool deck, he stated, however the authorities wouldn’t then hold a recording of that privateness violation, amplifying it additional.
“The thing we are really worried about is police start deploying drones as first responders for the majority of their calls for service and suddenly you have this crisscrossing network of surveillance all over the city,” Freed Wessler stated. “You have the potential for a pervasive record of what everyone is doing all the time.”
Kohls stated an officer flying a drone who noticed a distinct crime occurring whereas en route to a different name would cease to report and reply to that secondary crime, identical to an officer would on the bottom.
“Absolutely, if an officer sees a crime happening, they’re going to get on the radio, alert dispatch to what they’re observing,” Kohls stated. “Hopefully, if they have a few minutes of battery time left still, they can extend their time and circle or overwatch on that scene to provide hopefully life-saving radio traffic, whatever information they need to relay to dispatch to get other officers heading, or the fire department heading that way.”
State and federal legal guidelines haven’t but caught as much as how police are utilizing drones, Freed Wessler stated. The Fourth Amendment has what’s generally known as the plain-view exception, which permits cops who’re lawfully in a spot to take motion in the event that they see proof of a criminal offense occurring in plain sight.
“The problem here is we are not talking about police doing a thing we would normally expect them to do,” Freed Wessler stated. “We are talking about police taking advantage of a new technology that gives them a totally new power to fly at virtually no expense over any part of the city at any time of day and see a whole bunch of stuff happening.”
A Denver police drone lands on its docking station on the roof of Denver Police headquarters in Denver, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The Colorado Supreme Court drew a distinction between what a human police officer can see and what expertise can do for surveillance in 2021, when the justices discovered that Colorado Springs cops violated a person’s constitutional rights once they put in a raised video digicam on a utility pole close to his house to spy over his fence 24/7 for 3 months with out acquiring a warrant.
Police have broad leeway to look at suspects with out first getting a search warrant — like by peering by way of a fence or climbing the steps of a close-by constructing to look right into a yard. But that’s totally different from utilizing a refined video digicam to file an individual 24/7 for months, the justices concluded.
So far, that’s the closest ruling in Colorado on the problem of drone surveillance, Freed Wessler stated. Robinson, the coverage director on the ACLU of Colorado, stated lawmakers ought to act to control police drone use — both on the state or native degree.
“These are flying cops,” stated Beryl Lipton, senior investigative researcher on the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit centered on digital privateness. “That is another one of those slippery slopes.”
Aside from the legality of surveillance, one other query is how the drone footage and flight knowledge is utilized by the drone firms, Lipton stated.
“We live in a time where all these AI-fueled companies have a real drive to integrate AI into everything, and they’re really hungry for new data,” she stated. “And we have law enforcement helping to feed these companies in a way they don’t really understand.”
Under its present settlement with Denver police, Skydio doesn’t use drone footage to coach its algorithm or enhance its product. Flock spells out in its contract that the corporate can “collect, analyze and anonymize” drone footage, then use that anonymized footage to coach its “machine learning algorithms,” and improve its providers.
Lipton added that expertise is transferring quick — Axon, an organization that powers many police departments’ body-worn cameras — this month began testing facial recognition on its cameras to mechanically alert a police officer if an individual they’re encountering has a warrant out for his or her arrest.
Prisons are experimenting with “movement analysis” to mechanically flag an individual’s actions as doubtlessly aggressive earlier than the individual perpetrates violence, she stated.
“We are technologically at a place where it would not be hard for a drone to fly over an area and basically serve as a license-plate reader for humans,” Lipton stated. “… Some of this analysis is just not being done because it is not publicly palatable yet. But it is not like it is technologically difficult for some of these companies.”
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