NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell on Sunday said police plan to use drones to survey crime scenes, an initiative he said was inspired by technology Mayor Eric Adams saw during his tour of Israel’s National Police Academy last week.
“We can get the drones there quicker than a police car,” Chell said during an interview on WPIX. “They could spot out what the situation is from overhead and give us a heads up as to what we’re looking at.”
Chell did not join Adams on his trip to Israel, but other top NYPD officials traveled with the mayor, including the department’s Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry and First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella.
Adams did not go into further detail about the Israeli technology he reviewed on Wednesday when asked by a reporter, but said that pairing drones with NYPD officers riding on motorcycles would help cut down on emergency response times.
Mayor Adams has loosened restrictions on using drones in the city, making it easier for businesses to get licenses to operate the devices. The NYPD has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the aerial devices this year, using them more during Adams’ first 15 months in office than the last 15 months of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, the New York Post first reported.
The police department has expanded its use of ShotSpotter, a controversial technology used to locate and report gunshots using a network of microphones installed around the city. Chell said the NYPD could use drones to respond to ShotSpotter alerts.
“[Drones are] definitely another piece of technology we could use to make this city safer,” Chell said, adding that drones could be used “for sharks on the beach” or to investigate a building collapse.
Critics have warned that expanding police drones – equipped with recording capability and night vision – threaten individual civil liberties and could be used to surveil protestors.
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