NYPD Drones Fly Over NYC With 'Almost No Regulation', NYCLU Says

NEW YORK CITY — A squadron of flying "spying devices" circle New York City’s skies with little to no regulation, according to a new report from a local civic group raising the alarm.

At least 33 government-owned drones can fly over city dwellers’ heads at any moment, a new study — “Prying Eyes: Government Drone Data Across New York State” — by the New York Civil Liberties Union found.

Nineteen of those drones are operated by the NYPD, according to the study, which raises concerns about police using such technology.

“The dangers posed by these incredibly powerful spying devices are hard to overstate, and they’re being used with almost no regulation,” the study states.

“We can’t count on law enforcement agencies to police themselves, and that’s especially true when it comes to the use of invasive, military-grade technologies like drones.”

Click here to view an interactive map of government drones across New York State.

Government entities across New York have filed 530 active drone registrations, with 327 of those being run by law enforcement agencies, according to the study.

Beyond the NYPD’s 19 drones, there are 12 operated by the city’s Emergency Management department and two by the Gerrittsen Beach Fire Department in south Brooklyn.

New York City bans commercial and individual use of drones within city limits, but that doesn’t mean they’re not flying above.

The makers of Candy Crush recently drew a backlash when they launched 500 drones from New Jersey to turn the Big Apple’s skyline into the backdrop of what amounted to giant ad.

Annoying as the Candy Crush display was for many city dwellers, the NYCLU study raises even deeper concerns about government spying and invasion of privacy.

Drones can be used to track large numbers of people or vehicles, peer into windows unnoticed and be equipped with “biometric surveillance capabilities like facial recognition, gait recognition, emotion recognition, or behavior detection,” the study states.

Even when such biometric data is inaccurate, cops can still rely on it to arrest people, the study warned.

The study specifically raised concerns about Mayor Eric Adams considering use of drones from rooftops in high-crime areas, as first reported by the New York Post.

But much about what New York government agencies have deployed drones remained murky, until the NYCLU sent out a raft of public records requests, according to the study.

The results show police agencies are overwhelmingly using drones, with Nassau County Police Department holding the most for a local department with 33.

“The New York State Police holds a whopping 126 active registrations,” the study states.

NYCLU advocates argued that state lawmakers should pass a bill that prohibits drone surveillance of protests, require a search warrant before they’re used in police investigations and prohibit them from using facial recognition software, weapons or crowd control devices.

Read the full study here.