Major Enhancement to New York Public Safety 

Major Enhancement to New York Public Safety 

first responders

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Law enforcement and public safety agencies are realizing the potential of using drones to enhance their missions. Drones can do everything from gathering information about a fire to finding a missing person quicker to ensure officers are not putting themselves in harm’s way. 

New York State is expanding drone operations in the public safety sector in an attempt to integrate drones in daily operations. The move will be assisted by Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research (NUAIR) and the public safety drone organization DRONERESPONDERS which will use their resources to integrate drone technology in order to advance public safety drones, payloads, UTM/AAM, and Counter UAS technologies.

“NUAIR provides organizations the tools and knowledge to integrate and conduct advanced drone operations while DRONERESPONDERS focuses on aerial first responders and emergency managers, helping them learn, train and fly in emergency situations,” says a NUAIR press release. 

While drone technology has major advantages for public safety agencies and communities, getting started presents a challenge.  Adequate training on drone operations and regulations must be layered with the specific requirements for police and fire departments. 

DRONERESPONDERS is a non-profit program created to unite these new aerial first responders, emergency managers, and search and rescue specialists under a unified organization to help learn, train, and test with one another with the ultimate objective of maximizing drone operations for public safety. The organization provides an extensive online drone resource center with training aids, videos, regulation updates, and more to its 3,800 members.  

In New York, NUAIR is helping more than 25 state, county and local agencies implement their drone programs so far, according to dronelife.com.