police drones

Police in New York City have added an another use case to their expanding deployment of drones: dissuading people from recurring rooftop “subway surfing” activity that has resulted in deaths and serious injuries this year.

When New York Mayor Eric Adams announced the liberalization of permitting rules for drone operation in the city last July, he predicted it would lead to a growth of aerial services improving residents’ daily lives. One application he didn’t mention is one many New Yorkers are least enamored with: UAV surveillance by the police, which has increased exponentially over the past year.

The slowly expanding use of drones by police forces in France for surveillance purposes continued its modest advance this week with the deployment of UAVs over the southwest city of Toulouse, where a neighborhood notorious for open-air drug dealing is now being monitored from on high.

The innovative producer of tactical UAVs designed specifically for police, fire, and other emergency responder operators, BRINC, has announced the first deliveries of its latest LEMUR 2 drones to US public safety clients, opening a new chapter in the already eventful history of the young startup.

Just three weeks after Skydio’s release of its new, tech-amped X10 drone, the company is now rolling out its Remote Flight Deck solution permitting users to operate the craft from a simple browser – providing a potentially invaluable asset for police, fire, first responder, and other intended operators.

New or expanded drone operation by police is always a sensitive, when not controversial proposition and one requiring careful examination. And that’s just what Philadelphia City Council members did in discussing the idea when they got an up-close-and-personal gander at a UAV flown inside the meeting hall.

Police in the popular UK coastal city of Brighton have begun flying late-night drone patrols of the beachfront in an effort to halt a recent series of sexual assaults in the area.

The time-tested parental observation advises that one learns more about a situation by heeding what people do rather than what they say. That may also be said of the recent decision by the Baltimore Police Department in establishing its new drone fleet using DJI drones – and in doing so broadly reflecting the frequent response of independent administrations to the largely politicized moves by Congress, US government agencies, and several state legislatures to blacklist the UAV giant’s craft from official use across the nation.

It’s no secret that UK police have been energetic and innovative adopters of drone technology in public service, law enforcement, and first responder activity, but a recent survey suggests those forces need to do a better job in assuring security of their UAVs and the data they collect.

In a world where clicks are king, stories about drones deployed to rescue kidnapped puppies are royal – as is the Ashland County Sheriff’s officer who piloted a Hallmark-card-meets-abduction-release operation in Ohio recently. 

New York has recently taken considerable steps toward facilitating and increasing the use of long-banished drones within the city – and also overcoming lively resident opposition to those rooted in personal privacy concerns. But it’s precisely the enduring strength of that resistance that now risks making a decision by NY police to deploy UAVs for outdoor and backyard party surveillance this long holiday weekend a “too much, too soon” decision officials may wind up regretting.

Despite the recent moves toward liberalizing drone flights in New York, police officials have made it abundantly clear that any unauthorized UAV spotted around this year’s US Open Tennis Tournament in Queens will be subjected to the city’s traditional bum’s rush treatment of aerial reprobates.

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.

The Police Department of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has received an all-clear to enter the small craft aerial age with final approval – and a nearly $100,000 budget – to create and operate a new fleet of drones, all of which will initially be DJI craft that politicians in Washington, DC, and a number of states have been seeking to ban.

Police in France have conducted the nation’s first known drone surveillance of a pro soccer match, with flights of UAVs above Paris’s Parc des Princes stadium Saturday in what may be the first step toward regular deployment of publicly opposed aerial tech.

In the wake of the city’s recent decision to introduce permitting procedures expected to ease its notoriously tight drone restrictions, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has moved to expand its own fleet by procuring cutting-edge BRINC tactical UAVs designed for use in critical situations to reduce threat to human lives.

If drones are being deployed to keep people safe from sharks at the city’s beaches, the New York Police Department (NYPD) figures they may prove just as useful in broadcasting audio messages to residents of areas facing emergency situations.

As a reflection of just how strong public sentiment in France remains against police use of drones to monitor people, officials waited well into the nation’s six-straight nights of rioting before giving law enforcement agencies the green light to fly UAVs for security purposes in response to the unrest.

Activity by US drone operators were critical in saving a trio of lives in recent days, including a youth in Colorado’s whose DJI craft spotted an otherwise hidden vehicle flipped in a sinkhole over the weekend.

A new law in Illinois gives police the authority to deploy drones in expanded scenarios – for notably monitoring crowds during large public events – but prevents law enforcement from using any facial recognition tech during aerial operations, apart from critical situations like potential terror plotting.

The drone unit of the Devon and Cornwall Police department has begun using DJI craft to combat dangerous driving in what they call the first use of UAVs for road safety enforcement in England or Wales.