‘New York Post’ wigs out over its own report of possible police drone use as first responders

In the wake of recent moves to facilitate drone operations in the formerly closed skies of New York City, officials are now reportedly examining the further expansion of already increasing police use of UAVs to include emergency responder activities – provoking immediate, albeit suspiciously motivated alarm.

News of New York City looking to add first responder deployment to those the police department’s drone unit already operates is at once logical, not surprising, and the topic of some controversy – or at least attempts to stir reaction. Initial reports of those broader UAV plans came this week in the New York Post – one of the papers owned by Fox News tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who rarely misses an opportunity to generate trouble for his liberal foes. 

In this case, the normally law-and-order activist daily plays to actual, long-standing New Yorker concerns about privacy rights from the city’s increased tech deployment to kindle fears over speculative risks of drones being dispatched to emergency or disaster situations, and in doing so speed and improve police response.

The paper’s report flows from the city’s relative UAV liberalization initiatives that many observers not only consider long overdue, but nearly unremarkable compared to practices in many other US cities.

That process began in July with the introduction of a new permitting system overseen by the New York police department that’s expected to facilitate and increase drone operation for a limited number of purposes – while also keeping privacy advocates informed about flight locations and purposes. As part of that, NYC mayor and former cop Eric Adams said the changes would usher in a range of aerial operations and services designed to improve residents’ lives.

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That was followed up this month with news arising from an earlier Post story revealing New York had spent nearly $90,000 to buy cutting-edge BRINC tactical drones designed specifically for police and emergency response. Those will complement the force’s existing fleet of 19 UAVs, including 14 DJI drones it bought in 2018.

Given its previous revelation – and accompanying mood music of looming threats to individual privacy it contained – this week’s Post story on NYPD moves to develop and strengthen its UAV crisis response potentials is more of a foregone conclusion cum intended consequence than sinister bolt from the blue.

Despite that, persisting privacy concerns in New York – and Adams’ liberal lean – motivated the Post‘s recurring warnings about the potential aerial surveillance threats from the craft nonetheless. In making those, the paper states that under the current administration, UAVs were deployed in “crime-fighting or emergency situations 48 times between January 2022 and March 2023.” During the final 15 months of the previous mayoral regime, it notes, there were just “just 36 uses recorded.”

Those numbers, it claims, demonstrate drone use by New York police “has doubled” over those periods – a contention that in fact comes in one-third short of 100% increase alleged. 

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Moreover, the paper even waters down the story’s revelatory peg with the qualifier – buried nearly at the end – that “(i)t’s not clear if the NYPD has concrete plans to use drones to respond to 911 calls in the future.” Stop the presses, indeed.

Still, with the department having already tested use of UAVs to broadcast messages to neighborhoods during simulated disaster scenarios, it appears likely New York police will also continue testing drones for emergency response with the objective of eventual, real-life deployment in the future. If so, it will follow the example departments in other cities provided months ago – albeit without the contradictory fretting from Murdoch media that their NYC peers will doubtless endure.

Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash