NYPD Triples Drone Use, Concerning Civil Liberties Activists

The NYPD has more than tripled its use of drones in the last year, most recently deploying them 13 different times to monitor public protests last month, Bahar Ostadan reports for Gothamist. Between April and June of this year, the department deployed drones 143 times. The NYPD’s drone fleet has doubled in size since the program was launched five years ago – from 13 drones then to 30 today, and is expected to continue to expand in the coming years. Civil liberties activists say they see the use of drones as an undemocratic violation of privacy. No agency outside the NYPD oversees or regulates how the department uses information gathered by drones.