NYPD to Deploy Drones to Monitor Gatherings During Labor Day Weekend
NYPD officials have revealed their intention to utilize drones to address noise complaints during the upcoming Labor Day weekend, expanding their existing limited use of unmanned aircraft systems for search and rescue operations, crime scene documentation, and monitoring major public events such as New Years Eve in Times Square. This means that you may soon witness a drone in your own backyard.
“If a caller reports that there’s a large crowd, a large party in the backyard, we use our property to go and check out the party,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said at a news conference Thursday. Privacy advocates have been quick to respond, with a representative of the New York Civil Liberties Union telling the Associated Press that the announcement “flies in the face of the POST Act,” which requires police to publish their policies on using surveillance technology.
And indeed, the plan could represent a sharp departure from those policies. When the department first announced its new drone program, it promised that the technology would not be used for “unwarranted surveillance.” This promise is reflected in the NYPD’s POST Act Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Impact and Use policy, which specifically states that (absent exigent circumstances) drones may not be used “in areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy without obtaining a search warrant from NYPD personnel that expressly authorize the use of UAS.”
It’s unclear whether the department plans to get a permit for noise complaints at private events over the Labor Day weekend, or whether such a complaint falls under “exigent circumstances.” Nevertheless, the NYPD has increased its use of drones in recent years, deploying unmanned aerial systems 124 times in 2023.
