Less Crime! NYPD Introduces Drones As ‘First Responders’ In Emergency And Shooting Cases
DEBARYLIFE – Officials from the NYPD announced that soon, drones will be traveling with police officers on shooting investigations and other 911 calls across the city.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry stated at a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security that a new drone as a first responder pilot program will go into force in the upcoming months, starting with five NYPD police precincts.
On Thursday, Daughtry said to the committee, “The plan is to deploy these drones in response to certain 911 calls for service, to be rolled out in the coming months.”
According to Daughtry, Brooklyn is home to three of the program’s precincts. Central Park is covered by the fifth, and the Bronx is home to the fourth. According to “recent crime trends,” the precincts were selected, he said.
The precinct stationhouse roofs will be modified to accommodate two drone platforms. According to Daughtry, the pilot will be based at the NYPD Joint Operations Center at police headquarters in lower Manhattan, where they will be taking off and landing from the station rooftop.
From there, they will transmit video and telemetry to law enforcement officers who are deployed in the field.
The NYPD stated that the drones would be used in response to gunfire detection ShotSpotter warnings from a ring of nearby microphones. The drones are anticipated to be deployed to shooting incidents within their precincts.
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“[We] intend to evaluate the drones’ self-sufficient reaction to ShotSpotter gunshot detection system alerts,” an NYPD spokesperson stated.
“ShotSpotter warnings, which include the time and position of the firing, are already sent to police officers while they perform other tasks. They are received via police radios and smartphones issued by the NYPD. Now, the system will also provide [the drones] with the longitude and latitude of shooting.
The spokesman stated that drone pilots will then fly over to the shooting site “prior to the officer’s arrival on the scene.”
“Police will be able to view what the drone sees in real time on their cellphones,” the spokesperson stated.
Daughtry to the committee, “The information provided by DFR will be shared with responding officers.” “It will support officer safety, improve situational awareness for officers as they arrive on scene, and enable us to deploy resources more efficiently.”
Now, the NYPD has eighty-five drones. Major events like the Times Square ball drop on New Year’s Eve, sizable protests, and significant police presence are typically covered by the remote flyers.
After incidents, Daughtry added, the drones have also been used to assess the structural stability of buildings and bridges. Drones have also been used for above-ground train line patrols, keeping an eye out for subway surfers.
Although Daughtry stated that drones cannot be used for “traffic enforcement or immobilizing vehicles of suspects” or “warrantless surveillance,” the NYPD’s usage of drones increased by more than 400% in 2022.
Additionally, drones are prohibited from being deployed on normal patrols; however, it is unclear how the new pilot program will impact this regulation.
Critics have denounced the agency for using drones, calling the aerial cameras a “dystopian technology” that violates the civil rights of locals.
The New York Civil Liberties Union objected to a plan last year to fly drones over Brooklyn’s J’Ouvert event around Labor Day. The festival is Caribbean-inspired and has historically been the scene of violent altercations. The organization called the plan “racialized discrimination.”
Senior privacy and technology strategist for the NYCLU Daniel Schwartz stated, “It doesn’t make us feel safer.” Our First and Fourth Amendment rights are being abused by the NYPD. It is simple to abuse the widespread drone monitoring system to target and discriminate against New Yorkers, endangering everyone’s privacy.