In order to reduce crime in the city, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he is open to allowing the NYPD to use drones — the unmanned aircrafts typically used in war zones — especially in areas such as the city’s housing projects where shootings are reportedly up 32 percent this year.
“Myself, I’m supportive of the concept of drones, not only for police but for public safety in general,” Bratton said last Tuesday, while addressing the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
“It’s something that we actively keep looking at and stay aware of,” he said, before adding that the drones would also likely help the New York City Fire Department better determine the size and intensity of a fire.
However, some civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union, are voicing. concerns about the use of drones. They say that the use of the technology will likely lead to violations of privacy — something all Americans are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
“Drones can be useful in law enforcement,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,said, “but they should not become a vehicle for widespread, secret surveillance of the private space of innocent New Yorkers.”
John Miller, the NYPD’s head of intelligence, agreed with Bratton that drones could be a useful tool for the department. He added that while the department has not used drones yet, officers are studying the technology because it’s a “potentially valuable weapon against crime.”
Drones may be able to help police officers and other first responders with some crimes, but the concerns about a city police department using the technology are also related to the fact that the unmanned aircraft were first used overseas to kill those persons deemed terrorists by the United States.
Given that there have been concerns recently about the increase in police militarization across the U.S., as departments outfit officers with weapons and gear that was intended for the U.S. military, there is a fear that use of drones may not be just about tracking down suspects.
Concerns about a militarized police force are sometimes magnified in New York, as the NYPD is one of — if not the only — police departments in the U.S. to have officers stationed abroad in cities such as London, Washington, Hamburg, Tel Aviv and Toronto, where they are tasked with gathering intelligence. The NYPD also has its own terrorism response center, mobilized strike units and paramilitary storm troopers.
While drones may not technically be in use by the department yet — though it’s been in the works for years– the NYPD has had a surge in recent years in interest of using technology to help battle crime, earning the department the reputation as being one of the most innovative when it comes to policing techniques.
According to a report from the New York Daily News, the NYPD has already budgeted $500,000 to test gunshot detectors, which are essentially sensors connected to police cameras, or drones, that direct cops to the origin of a gunshot sound.
The gunshot detectors were tested in the city’s Brownsville and Brooklyn areas in 2011, but they were never tested citywide. Bratton, who used to be on the board of ShotSpotter, a company that makes gunshot detectors, said he believes the technology is “extraordinarily effective.”
However, Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former police officer, warned that the technology isn’t as great as it sounds. “It can detect a shot, but the problem is having the cops get to the scene. I’ve yet to see that the technology is bringing a lot of people to justice,” he said.
O’Donnell went on to add that shot detectors haven’t made a remarkable difference in Newark, N.J., Chicago and Boston, since police officers can’t always get to the scene in time. Officers in Oakland, Calif., and Milwaukee, Wis., have also said that the detectors sometimes fail to distinguish the sound of a firework bursting from a gunshot.
While drones could be used to ascertain whether the sound was a gunshot or a firework, then track which direction the suspects fled and even determine what the suspects look like, O’Donnell noted that use of the technology comes along with a plethora of constitutional issues.
“Can you look into somebody’s house? Can you fly over their backyard?” he asked. “There’s an unlimited number of scenarios you can think of where drones can be used.”
He pointed out that in Miami, police officers are required to obtain a warrant before using a drone, unless someone’s life is danger, in order to ensure they don’t violate anyone’s Fourth Amendment rights. And in Seattle, citizens’ concerns about the potential for privacy rights to be violated prompted the Seattle Police Department to abandon plans to use night-vision cameras.
Before drones could be used by the NYPD, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council would have to approve the technology. De Blasio has publicly showed support for the use of drones, but during the department’s previous attempts to incorporate drones under the leadership of Commissioner Ray Kelly, the city’s heavy air traffic made drone use unfeasible.