NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams said that "New York City is flying into the future" with a new NYPD public safety program that will deploy over 100 drones to monitor areas across the city, including Central Park, from the sky.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said at a press conference on Wednesday that there will be 109 drones patrolling around the park and parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx.
"Like a regular police car that you see driving up and down central park looking for any type of anomalies, looking for any fights, just to add an extra layer of eyes up there," Daughtry said.
Sixty officers were trained to serve as drone pilots, and they will be observing the technology remotely from the 67th, 71st and 75th Precincts in Brooklyn; the 48th Precinct in the Bronx; and Central Park in Manhattan.
Officials plan to use the drones to search for suspects and missing kids, sport shark in the summer at NYC beaches and keep a bird's eye view of what is going on in the city.
Mary-Lyn Buckley
"I want the drones to have an overview, an aerial view of exactly what's going on and just looking for anything out of the ordinary," Daughtry said. "And then once those drone teams spot that, they would notify the boots and the ground officers what they see."
Law enforcement said that drones can increase first response time and first responder safety, are more cost effective than other aerial technology like helicopters and provide increased transparency with clear, objective evidence of actions through their video capabilities.
"We are leveraging the latest technology to enhance the NYPD's emergency-response capabilities, remotely sending drones to the exact longitude and latitude of where an emergency call comes and sometimes in as little as a minute," Adams said. "These drones will mean more efficient policing and will help increase the safety of our responding NYPD officers and New Yorkers."
Sixty NYPD officers were trained to pilot the drones.Mary-Lyn Buckley
