Chicago Police want more drones, billionaire Crown family may foot the bill
Crown Family Philanthropies will provide CPD with $150,000 technology grant
The Chicago Police Department wants more drones — expensive drones — priced at $33,000 a pop. Luckily for Chicago’s Finest, one of America’s wealthiest families may be willing to help them out: the Crowns.
Per the Sun-Times, CPD only had five drones as of September, which is far lower than New York City’s 55 and San Diego’s 47. Emails recently exchanged between CPD and Crown Family Philanthropies, obtained by Noir News, describe CPD’s desire for “20 to 30 as we expand the drone program. $33K each (discounted to $16K each).” The emails also list CPD’s funding requests for special vehicle forensics training at a cost of $104,000 and continued access to the services of the controversial digital intelligence firm Cellebrite.
The emails confirm that, following an application by CPD, the Crowns agreed to provide a grant for “$150,000 over 1 year for technology to support CPD investigations” in July 2024, and that the Crowns provided a similar grant in 2023. It’s not clear from the emails how the money would be allocated between CPD’s technology wants. Per the award letter, “Crown Family Philanthropies (‘CFP’) will be assisting in the oversight and administration of this grant,” potentially providing greater sway over law enforcement decisions to one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Chicago.
The Crowns are famed billionaires whose legacy is hard to miss, especially in Chicagoland. Per the family’s philanthropy website, “At the end of the 19th century, Arie and Ida Crown emigrated from Eastern Europe and settled in Chicago.” One of their children, Henry Crown, founded Material Service Corporation and began amassing the family’s wealth. Forbes put the family’s current net worth at $14.7 billion, which includes a large amount of equity in the weapons manufacturer General Dynamics and myriad other holdings. The family is also known for its political donations and for its philanthropy, often aimed at reducing gun violence, promoting Jewish life and the state of Israel, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Many a building is named for the Crowns.
The family’s funding of CPD tech isn’t surprising. Late scion James Crown made no secret of his ambitions to drive down crime in the Windy City prior to his passing.
CPD and the Crown family could not immediately be reached for comment.
Drones in Chicago have thus far mostly been used to surveil large public events like the Democratic National Convention and Lollapalooza, per the Sun-Times. Presumably, more drones would be used for this purpose, and, as CPD has advocated for, to be dispatched to aid officers responding to 911 calls.
“With our workforce being lower and the struggles with recruiting officers, this is really a force multiplier,” CPD Sgt. Marcus Buenrostro previously told the City Council per the Sun-Times. “We’re able to utilize it and cover a lot more area than any patrol car can. We do it with nobody getting injured and no complaints.”
CPD’s drone dreams aren’t without critics. Per the Sun-Times, American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said: “Drones have an enormous capacity to surveil people without their knowledge — to look into buildings, into cars, into apartments — and we ought to move very slowly with that kind of surveillance technology without having in place the appropriate privacy regulations to guard against peoples’ rights being violated.”
CPD’s use of Cellebrite — which may already or may going forward be funded by the Crowns — has been known for some time. Cellebrite, an Israel-based and Pentagon-funded digital intelligence firm, provides clients the ability to “unlock” digital devices. The firm’s tech is equal parts competent and controversial. As reported by Drop Site News, Cellebrite helped Chinese officials break into the phones of pro-democracy Hong Kongers, Botswana police break into the phones of journalists, and Russian authorities crack opposition figures’ phones. Cellebrite also helped the FBI break into the phone of would-be-Trump-assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in only 40 minutes and is used by other police forces throughout the country.
CPD’s special vehicle forensics training, which may be funded by the Crowns, would be provided by a Maryland-based and Department of Homeland Security-funded company called Berla. The emails state that CPD would need $104,000 to train “26 additional ATC officers who have not been trained in this process. This training is $4,000 per person.” Lots of information is stored in the computers within modern cars, and Berla claims it can help clients learn to garner location data, data from connected devices, routes, and vehicle event logs, such as door opens, ignition cycles and gear shifts.
Sam Carlen contributed to the editorial process for this article.