By Hank Russell
The Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) announced the launch of its Drone As First Responder (DFR) Program at its Garden City headquarters on June 29. During the press conference, a real time demonstration was conducted and included a live video feed from the drone’s point-of-view.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman emphasized the importance of having this technology in fighting crime. “Trying to stay ahead of the curve is something we’ve been trying to do every single day,” he said.
The program cost $1 million, but Blakeman noted that the money used to purchase the drones came from the county’s asset forfeiture fund.
“These drones will be patrolling and will be responding,” Blakeman said. “During the course of the day or evening, drones will be up on a regular basis. … They will get there ahead of time and before any police officer will have a chance to respond and be able to assess the situation.”
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said there are 70 drones being operated by 40 pilots certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, 12 of whom work out of the NCPD’s intelligence center. There are eight pods located throughout the county. Further, each drone flies within a 2.5-mile radius.
Ryder explained how the drone works. “If a call comes [in] and it’s a high-level call — let’s say a 911 call for shots fired or a shooting at the mall or an event at the school — it starts up the engine,” he said. “[The drone operator] pushes the button. The drone rises up and goes to the geocode location that we sent to it. It will immediately respond and give us a live video feed, not only to the intelligence center, but to every single phone inside every single police car in Nassau County.”
The drones are from Skydio, an American company. Ryder said the drones are American-made and the NCPD is precluded from buying Chinese-made drones, which are used by private owners.
He also said that the drones can be used to proactively monitor large-scale events, whether it is a riot or a concert, so that “we can proactively protect the people from a [situation] that may happen.”
The drones also come equipped with FLIR (forward-looking infrared) video cameras that can detect a person’s body heat, which can help find suspects hiding or fleeing from the authorities or a lost child, Ryder said.
Each drone has 30 minutes of battery life, so if the battery is dying, “it automatically goes back,” Ryder said. “If we lose communication, they are built with an inside parachute, so if the plane drops out of the sky, the parachute takes over.”
Future plans include adding more drones, which will be purchased with asset forfeiture money. “It’s a game changer for us, and we’re not done yet,” Ryder said.