After the death of George Floyd, the Black man killed at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota in late May, the country erupted in protest, calling for racial justice by peaceful and violent means.
Protesters took to the streets in downtown Olympia and on the state Capitol Campus. And while local police monitored and sometimes engaged the protesters, the Washington State Patrol took to the skies above the city in a different role.
The Washington State Patrol aviation division hangar is based at Olympia Regional Airport. It operates six planes, including one large enough to transport prisoners. The aviation division's primary mission is traffic enforcement, monitoring the roads for erratically driven vehicles, excessive speed or those driving under the influence.
The aviation division also recently played a role in tracking the suspect accused of killing Bothell police officer Jonathan Shoop last month, said State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Darren Wright.
But beginning in late May, and continuing through the end of July, the State Patrol spent 36 hours, 20 minutes in the skies above Olympia to monitor mostly nighttime protests -- flying frequently enough that the drone of plane noise had many residents on edge.
The State Patrol received 71 noise complaints in June, Wright said.
"We don't want to impact people any more than we have to," he said.
"It keeps everyone safe," Wright said about the aviation division, "not only officers, but those expressing their First Amendment rights."
Although the State Patrol received 71 official complaints, complaints were posted almost daily on social media in June as planes flew above Olympia.
Said one woman on Twitter: "Do you know why there's a plane ceaselessly circling Olympia? I heard we're looking to save money as a state. Is burning a bunch of aviation fuel a part of that plan?"
Said a man on Next Door: "Anyone that thinks that airplane is keeping us safe is out of their mind. Think how much money they are wasting paying the pilot each day."
Yet another man on Next Door said, "Can anyone provide justification for the constant aerial assault on our city? Who is paying for this intrusion and the daily cost? I have not heard so much noise in the sky since Vietnam."
There is a cost associated with the operation of the planes.
According to a records request made by The Olympian, it costs $274 per flight hour, or nearly $10,000 for the 36 hours of flight time in Olympia. Statewide in June, the planes flew 164 hours, or $44,000 for those missions, and 222 hours in July, or $60,000. Wright said the planes not only monitored protests in Olympia but also in Seattle, in addition to conducting traffic enforcement.
Olympia resident Mathias Eichler said he was initially frustrated by the noise and then he began to question the larger purpose of monitoring protests here. Did the protests ever rise to that great a threat?
"I understand that we are the state capital, but these protests never put the Capitol building or Governor's Mansion in danger," he said.
He initially compared the plane noise to a neighbor working late at night in a garage with a drill, something he heard while trying to watch TV or sleep, typically between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.
That annoyance turned to frustration when he learned the planes use infrared technology, which for him, smacks of militarizing local law enforcement.
"I don't think the protest climate in this community validates that kind of response," he said. "We're not in a war.
"On top of the noise pollution, it's a complete waste of resources," he said.
State Patrol spokesman Wright said the planes use infrared video camera technology. Those images help the State Patrol monitor movement on the ground, and that information can be shared with a command post, which will dispatch troopers accordingly, he said.
"Our planes are not equipped with any kind of facial recognition (software) and we're not able to collect any cell phone data," Wright said. "It's just a video camera in the sky."
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