NYPD deploys more drones to 911 calls, privacy advocates are worried

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is increasingly deploying drones for reconnaissance flights when 911 is called. The police claim this makes the city safer, but privacy advocates feel it invades citizens’ privacy.

Whenever the emergency number is called in New York, the police may send a drone to investigate. The drones record everything that happens when they fly over, even when you’re relaxing and sipping a drink in your backyard. It is not just your house – the whole block is recorded this way. All these images are then stored for at least 30 days.

This scenario has become commonplace for New Yorkers since the city’s police department has drastically expanded its use of drones. City officials have dubbed it the Drones as First Responders (DFR) program. The drones are equipped with powerful telephoto cameras to identify people and vehicles and can stay in the air for up to 40 minutes.

The NYPD says the DFR program makes New York a safer place and has marketed it as an important crime-fighting tool. Civil liberties and privacy advocates, however, feel differently.

According to Recorded Future News, critics of the program say police haven’t been clear about when they deploy drones. There are also concerns about whether and how police integrate drone footage with other surveillance technologies like facial recognition, license plate readers, gunshot detection system records, and artificial intelligence (AI).

In addition, some drones are armed with even more technologically advanced features, such as night vision, thermal imaging, two- and three-dimensional mapping technologies, and tools to break glass.

The NYPD says it only deploys drones to “select priority public safety calls,” but reality says otherwise. Statistics from the police department show that police officers have dispatched drones more than 3,700 times in the second half of last year. In 2023, drones were deployed only 564 times over the entire year.

On top of that, the department has admitted to using drones to hover over house parties in response to noise complaints and has suggested they should routinely patrol the city.

“They’re using these to see locations that normally the police wouldn’t be able to see, and that would require a warrant to search. They claim that they’re only viewing areas that are public, but there are real questions about that,” Jerome Greco, digital forensics director at New York’s Legal Aid Society, says.