Mayor Adams and the NYPD announced a plan to expand coverage by drones into more precincts Wednesday afternoon in Central Park, pushing for eyes-in-the-sky assistance for public safety.
Adams and police said increasing the Drones As First Responders program will help speed police response times, enable more efficient policing and increase officers’ safety. The precincts expected to see more drones include the 67th, 71st and 75th precincts in Brooklyn, the 48th Precinct in the Bronx and the Central Park Precinct in Manhattan.
“These drones would mean more efficient policing and would help increase our ability to make arrests before suspects flee, or to bring a condition under control,” Adams said. “Most importantly, it will help increase the safety of the responding officers.”
Adams highlighted the use of drones for public safety at protests, lost persons at beaches, shark sightings and general crime incidents in the city. He also pointed to an Oct. 12 incident of a 4-year-old girl in the Bronx who was hanging out a window, noting how a drone’s quick response avoided a tragedy.
“When the call comes over,” Adams said, “what if a drone can get there within seconds, identify exactly what ledge that child is on, identify what apartment is associated with that ledge, and they’re able to get there and with precision, purpose, focus … ?” he said. “The child is safe today because of a new program called Drones As First Responders.”
The drones patrol above their dedicated precincts even when not responding to incidents, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said.
Daughtry highlighted the use of drones in an early-morning Aug. 17 Queens home invasion by a trio of armed robbers at Marathon Parkway and Cullman Ave. in Little Neck. The thieves robbed the family of more than $10,000 before police gave chase.
“The drone was launched because our air support was down,” Daughtry said, referring to the NYPD’s helicopters. “The drone watched, the cameras watched this whole thing take place, where they saw inside of the house that the family was being held against their will. They had their hands in the air.”
The drones are remote-controlled by trained NYPD officers who watch a live feed, allowing cops to make scene assessments and quickly broadcast descriptions of suspects and what is taking place at the crime scene. The program launched this past summer, aimed to assist with public safety calls, searches for missing people, gunshot detection, robberies, grand larcenies and other crimes.
NYPD Interim Commissioner Thomas Donlon called the program’s impact “amazing.”
“Since the Drones As First Responders program was launched in late June,” he said, “drones have responded to more than 2,300 calls for service, an amazing feat — from shootings to burglaries … to missing persons and barricaded individuals.”
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