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NYPD Deploying Drone for First Time To Secure New Year's Party (bloomberg.com)
New York City police will deploy a camera-equipped drone above Times Square, along with new "counter-drone technology" blocking other devices from the area, where they expect as many as 2 million New Year's Eve revelers. From a report: The drone technology is the newest innovation developed by the largest U.S. police department as it prepares for an annual event that already features a broad array of anti-terrorism tactics. They will be used along with police airplanes and helicopters as surveillance tools, said Police Commissioner James O'Neill. Police and federal agents have worked with hotel staffs throughout the area in an effort to prevent an incident similar to the sniper who shot to death 59 outdoor concert-goers from a hotel room high above the Las Vegas strip on Oct. 1, 2017. O'Neill said authorities have no evidence of any credible threat of terrorism for New Year's Eve.
It certainly makes sense to use one, or have one available. The cost is trivial given the scale of the event.
I'm guessing that they want a bit better camera system than the typical hobby "drone" (quadcopter) has, so their craft may be a larger than the 10 inches / 250mm normally used by hobbiest. If so, I'd hope they use a hexacopter or septicopter. Quadcopters don't do well when a motor or prop fails. That's not really a problem if it's a little plastic toy like the big box stores sell, but a malfunctiin could be rather inconvenient if their drone is much larger and heavier.
Times Square on New Year's Eve has always been a shitshow made for ignorant tourists. Huge crowds, no bathrooms, long lines, pigs in uniform (NYPD) ticketing people for daring to drink alcohol. Go to a local bar, to to the Central Park run, throw a party in your apartment and annoy the prissy neighbors, take a flight to a civilized city that's not so uptight about people having fun in public.
wait! what? that $1000 device falls from the sky, hits a few spectators on the head, lawsuit 1-2 million. yep, well worth the money spent. good planning.
> that $1000 device falls from the sky, hits a few spectators on the head, lawsuit 1-2 million.
The $1,000-$2,000 are just a few ounces of plastic, so not a huge deal if it fell on you. Not *desirable*, you don't *want* to drop it on your head, but I'd rather that than a baseball. If you stick your fingers in the prop at full throttle, it hurts pretty bad for several minutes. Guess how I learned that.
However, as I said, I'm guessing NYPD may use one a bit larger, not the popular $1,000-$2,000 ones like the DJ Mavic or Phantom. If they go larger, say a $10,000 device, I hope they use one with more than four props because you definitely don't want a larger device falling if one motor / ESC fails. An octocopter can fly around with a couple of motors dead.
What could the cops do? Nothing. NYC would be better off if 50% of its police didn't show up to work and didn't enforce anything but violent crimes. There was a time where the NYPD went on "strike" and stopped issuing tickets for "quality of life" and "traffic" offenses. Know what happened? Nothing. Violent crime actually went DOWN that month.
Overpolicing in the US is the problem, not the solution.