Lee and Tisch discuss NYPD drone program expansion

All right, drones.

So as I mentioned in my opening statement, I saw a fascinating video yesterday.

Individuals in the Bronx had engaged in gun violence.

The local precinct used the drone to basically make sure that they were able to

to make sure they were apprehended quickly.

And we're thankful for those officers who were running towards two individuals who had just engaged in gun violence and also still had loaded weapons.

I'm so curious, and I know if you can't share this information for public safety related reasons, all fine, understood.

But can you talk to us about the use of drones?

Does every precinct have one or is it some of the cars?

So the chief of department is going to answer a lot of the specifics to your question.

And our use of drones is amazing.

I would just like to say up front that I would like to expand the department's use of drones.

We do not have drones at every precinct, and I believe we should have drones at every precinct.

As the drone management in the city is currently set up, the funding and the overall management of drone expansion is currently at the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

And I believe, given that the NYPD is the...

Biggest user of drones and there are such incredible opportunities to use this to that technology to drive public safety that we should be

in control of our own destiny in terms of expanding our drone program.

But the chief will tell you about how great it is.

Sure.

So obviously I'm not going to get into specific precincts on where our drones are being launched.

So we have three areas in Brooklyn, one area in the Bronx, and one area in northern Manhattan.

Each contains two docks.

Which can obviously fly two drones.

So the drone can only go out for a specific amount of time, comes back, and we put up the second drone.

We've done approximately 5,000 flights this year alone.

About 4,000 of those 5,000 are drones as first responders.

Our response time when we put up a drone to the actual 911 call is less than three minutes.

It's about two and a half minutes.

The success stories that you're talking about, I can specifically talk about the one you're talking about on May 24th, when, yes, there was a response to a shots fired, and, yes, we did grab two different individuals with pistols.

So it's highly successful.

I agree with the police commissioner.

We're looking to obviously explore and expand our drones.

In addition to the 4,000 first responder flights that we've done this year, there's another 1,000 that we used for either missings, you know, beach drone activity, parades, things of that nature.

So we are up and running, and it has been a great tool for us so far.

Chair, I apologize.

I just found the...

information you're looking for on school crossing guards.

I just want to make sure that it's in line with what the chief had previously said.

So as of May 13th, we employ 2,290 school crossing guards, including 2,211 level ones and 79 level twos.

The budgeted headcount for school crossing guards is 2,309, which breaks out to 2,219 level ones and 90 level twos.

All right, thank you for that data.

Just curious on the issue of technology and drones.

In what cases do we use drones?

They're more effective for many reasons.

They're cheaper, which means you could purchase more.

They're faster.

If you have more, you could have them in different locations.

In what cases do we use drones versus helicopters?

I'm sure every New Yorker has heard of those helicopters when there's a serious incident.

So, you know, we obviously know the price difference, right, between the fuel and things of that nature.

I will say this.

When we can put up a drone, that drone's going up.

You know, there are restrictions and also the infrastructure sometimes, or I should say,

you know, tight locations, things of that nature, yeah, we're able to use that drone in between buildings.

You know, our emergency service unit uses it tactically.

for barricaded perpetrators and you know we have approximately 80 drones and I'm telling you we use it as much as we can.

Good.