NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Eric Adams spoke about potentially expanding the NYPD’s drone fleet during a swanky private event at the five star Williamsburg Hotel.
The event featured a presentation from two Israeli drone manufacturers — Blue White Robotics and Easy Aerial, the New York Post reported.
Each drone costs between $70,000 and $100,000.
The companies have had contracts with United States agencies like the Department of Defense, Air Force and Customs and Border Protection. Their drones have also been used to surveill the Gaza Strip.
The NYPD trains with the Israeli Defense Force and has implemented IDF surveillance and crowd control tactics to suppress New York City protests, a report by Jewish Voice for Peace and Researching the American-Israeli Alliance found.
The NYPD acquired 14 drones in 2018 for $480,000.
The departments’ drone policy allows police to use the robots to surveill “large scale events.”
Since the departments’ acquisition of the drones, they have been spotted at protests.
Adams has been a proponent of drones in the past. As Brooklyn borough president he advocated for a bill that would allow the use of drones to conduct building inspections.
Opponents of the NYPD’s drone program criticized it as an example of the department’s expanding use of surveillance technology like facial recognition and cellphone location tracking.
“Drones aren’t just creepy, they’re a waste of money,” Albert Fox Cahn from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project told 1010 WINS. “Mayor Adam’s promised us community policing and is giving us robocop. If City Hall insists on this mistake, then Albany will need to outlaw police drones.”
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