Nassau County Unveils Speedy Drone First Responder Program

Source: ABC7 New York ↗

Nassau County, N.Y., launched a $1 million drone-as-first-responder program, funding it entirely through asset forfeiture funds rather than general tax revenue, County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced.

The fleet operates from eight permanent docking stations across the county. Drones are housed in climate-controlled pods and launch automatically when a 911 call comes in, in many cases reaching the scene before patrol units.

The unmanned aerial vehicles carry cameras and thermal imaging and travel at up to 40 miles an hour. A demonstration from the Nassau County Police Training and Intelligence Center to Eisenhower Park covered the distance in under a minute. “That’s about a five-to-seven-minute car ride, depending on when you’re leaving here,” Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. “In 30 seconds, that drone can be over that area in Eisenhower Park, feeding back intel, critical intel, to the intelligence center and to the responding vehicle.”

Once on scene, the drones send real-time information to the Nassau Police Intelligence Center and directly to responding patrol cars. “If I can slow down, if I can get information faster to my cops that are responding, they’re going to have a better way to attack and handle that problem,” Ryder said.

Blakeman said the program carries no direct cost to taxpayers. “It costs a million dollars, but here’s the good news: it’s not going to cost the taxpayers a nickel,” he said. “We are using our asset forfeiture funds to pay for that.”