SEND IN THE DRONES
NYPD ADDS AIR FORCE
The NYPD is buzzing about it's new fleet of drones — but not all of the buzz is good.
The department announced Tuesday that it has acquired 14 drones that will be soon be deployed across the city during emergencies, officials said.
The NYPD's Technical Assistance and Response Unit will use the drones to assist in rescue missions, inaccessible crime scenes and hostage situations.
“As the largest municipal police department in the United States, the NYPD must always be willing to leverage the benefits of new and always-improving technology,” NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement. “Our new (unmanned aircraft system) program is part of this evolution.”
This is the first time the NYPD is using drones, officials said. Police brass showed off their new “unmanned aerial vehicles” at Fort Totten in Queens.
Cops showed videos of the drones in action flying above a fatal car crash, hazardous oil spill and assisting in a missing persons case. In each scenario, the drones flew at a high elevation to capture aerial shots of the scene.
"Drone technology will give our cops and their incident commanders an opportunity to see what they're getting into before they go into harm's way," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said Tuesday. "This can now get us a lot closer into areas that a helicopter wouldn't be able to get into.”
NYPD officials said repeatedly that the drones will not carry weapons, be put on routine patrol or spy on potential suspects.
The department shared its plans with several community advocate groups concerned that drones will be used for spying — yet some critics still worry that the drones won't be kept in their boxes until an emergency occurs.
“When the NYPD provided us with an early look at a draft policy that would govern the department's deployment of drones, the NYCLU expressed serious concerns,” associate legal director Christopher Dunn said. “The NYPD did make some changes, but we continue to believe the NYPD's drone program poses a serious threat to New Yorkers' privacy.”
“The NYPD's drone policy places no meaningful restrictions on police deployment of drones in New York City and opens the door to the police department building a permanent archive of drone footage of political activity and intimate private behavior visible only from the sky,” Dunn said. “We believe the new policy falls far short of what is needed to balance the department's legitimate lawenforcement needs against the privacy interests of New Yorkers.”
The Legal Aid Society agreed.
“The Department has a history of using powerful technology to unfairly target our clients and communities of color,” the society said in a statement. “Its continued unrestrained expansion will only further sow distrust and increase unequal treatment of our clients.”