(NOTE: I did not say drones were needed, but rather that the one occasion of rogue drones was public knowledge)
Counter-unmanned aircraft system vendor D-Fend Solutions was identified in a since redacted version of a Niagara Regional Police board meeting agenda regarding its secret $534,000 purchase.
A D-Fend Solutions counter-drone device set up by Hamilton police during the Juno Awards ceremony in March, the company said in a media release.
A secret half-million-dollar expenditure by Niagara Regional Police could have been for the purchase of counter-drone equipment, rather than drones.
During an in camera meeting on April 23, police board members approved the purchase of an “unmanned aircraft system” through a single-source procurement costing $386,000 (U.S.) — or about $534,650 in Canadian funds.
The purchase was publicly reported May 28, however, details of the system and name of the vendor were withheld.
But Saleh Waziruddin, who as a member of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association monitors police board activity, said a version of the May 28 police board agenda posted online a week before the meeting, identified D-Fend Solutions as a single-source vendor to provide a “counter-unmanned aircraft system” for the NRP.
That information was later deleted from the website.
Waziruddin said the agenda item caught his attention, and he sent the website link to the agenda to his friend Sabrina Hill.
However, when he checked the online agenda a few days later, he noticed “the company name wasn’t there.” And, he said, the reference to a counter-unmanned aircraft system had been changed to “unmanned aircraft system.”
Waziruddin said he initially thought he was mistaken.
“I thought maybe I got things mixed up in my head,” he said.
But he soon learned Hill still had the website open on her computer, showing the original unaltered agenda item and confirming he was right.
Hill saved an image of it.
Sabrina Hill captured this image of a Niagara regional police agenda item, before the name of the vendor in a single-source procurement decision was omitted.
Sabrina Hill“If I hadn’t told (Hill), I would have thought I was the one who was hallucinating because it’s not there now,” Waziruddin said.
Asked to confirm the change in the agenda and the information Waziruddin provided, Niagara Regional Police spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin reiterated that police would provide no additional information about the $534,000 purchase.
“Again, as noted previously, the matter relates to policing techniques and operational procedures,” she said in an email.
“For that reason, we are not able to comment on specific details.”
Both Waziruddin and Hill questioned the need for secrecy.
“There are other police services that are using counter-drone systems. It’s public. It’s not a secret that this company is the one that is providing these all over the world,” Waziruddin said.
Even D-Fend Solutions Inc. has been public about the work it has been doing with local police forces in Ontario.
The Israel-based company issued a media release on April 6 saying its EnforceAir system was used by Hamilton police to identify unauthorized or potentially malicious drones during the Juno Awards held at TD Coliseum on March 29.
In the release, D-Fend Solution chief executive officer Zohar Halachmi said “large-scale public events like the Juno Awards pose uniquely complex security challenges, where maintaining safe and controlled airspace is just as critical as securing the ground.”
Saleh Waziruddin of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association.
Bob Tymczyszyn/ file photoWaziruddin said anti-drone technology is needed in Niagara.
For instance, he said, there were concerns about “rogue drones” flying over Niagara in areas where they are not permitted during the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
But Hill — she’s a licensed drone operator — said there have been “no near misses or strikes with drones in Niagara region at all.”
She said technology is in place to track drones in parts of Niagara where they are prohibited, such as over Niagara Falls .
“The margins are already safe enough,” she said. “I think this is just a shopping spree for Niagara Regional Police.”
Waziruddin said he was also concerned about D-Fend Solutions being chosen by the police board as the single-source vendor for the technology.
He said the company is one of several Israeli businesses that have faced criticism from activists for its role in the war in Gaza.
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