Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Interim NYC Police Commissioner Tom Donlon announced the city’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. The initiative is now active in five commands (two drones each) within three of the city’s five boroughs.
Missions include missing persons searches, alerts from the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, robberies/grand larcenies, “and other crimes in progress as needed.” The drones will stage from the 67th, 71st, and 75th Precincts in Brooklyn; the 48th Precinct in the Bronx; and the Central Park Precinct in Manhattan.
They will be used to supplement in-person police presence by providing high-definition audio and video in real time to officers’ and supervisors’ department-issued mobile phones. They can also serve in collecting high-resolution evidence for investigation and documentation; assessing potential dangerous hazmat incidents without putting first responders at risk; and responding to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.
Mayor Adams said, “While the ‘Drone as First Responder’ program is what precision policing in the 21st century looks like, drone potential is really just taking off. 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.”
