NYPD drones with rafts can join lifeguards in beach rescues
This summer, struggling swimmers at Coney Island may be met not only by a young lifeguard in an orange suit, but also by help from above, in the form of an insect-like device that delivers an inflatable float.
The float-carrying drone is the latest in a series of gadgets being promoted by Mayor Eric Adams as a way to improve life in New York City. During his weekly question-and-answer session at City Hall on Tuesday, the mayor said the drone would fly as part of a pilot project to address a chronic summer problem.
“They're starting with Coney Island, and they'll grow from there,” Mr. Adams said, referring to the entertainment mecca on Brooklyn's south shore. “I think it could be a great addition to saving the lives of those we lose this summer.”
New York City may be known for its concrete and steel canyons, but it also boasts 14 miles of city beaches, from Coney Island in Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach in Queens to Orchard Beach in the Bronx and South Beach on Staten Island.
City officials have long struggled to improve water safety at public beaches, with their strong tidal currents, legions of unskilled swimmers and perennial lifeguard staffing shortages. Four people drowned on the city's beaches last year, all when lifeguards were off duty, and three drowned the year before, city officials said. But there have been years with more drownings: In 2019, there were at least seven on Rockaway beaches alone.
Mr. Adams, who calls himself a “tech geek,” has already assigned a robot to patrol the Times Square subway station and has promoted a lasso-like device to restrain emotionally disturbed people.
On Tuesday, he said the drone's operators would use a powerful body-mounted speaker to communicate with both swimmers in distress and lifeguards trying to rescue them.
“Now you have eyes in the sky telling you, 'The person is walking straight ahead, the person is to the right of you, the person went under in front of you,'” Mr. Adams said.
Kaz Daughtry, Assistant Commissioner for Police Operations, posted a video on social media late last week, the drone's ability to drop flotation devices on swimmers in distress was praised.
“Oh Hey!” Mr. Daughtry said, turning from his computer monitor at police headquarters to the camera. “I bet you probably thought I was playing a video game. I don't know, maybe something like Call of Duty? Actually, I'm not.”
He said he was actually flying drones in the Bronx while sitting at his desk in Manhattan. “We are going to deploy these drones on the beach,” he announced.
A Parks Department official argued Tuesday that the plan was a logical progression from the city's current use of drones on city beaches to monitor sharks, which have been sighted more frequently in recent years.
Mr. Adams is nothing if not a drone enthusiast. After a parking garage collapsed last April, his administration used a team with drones and a robot dog to inspect the building. A month later, he took part in a 'Mayoral Drone Forum', where participants learned about new applications for drones. His police department has used them to control the crowd.
Last July, Mr Adams released guidelines to allow more drone use in the five boroughs, including for purposes such as inspecting building facades.
“We are paving the way for the future use of drones in our daily lives, and not just in emergency situations,” he says. said at the time. “And soon they will help us monitor our beaches for unauthorized swimmers and dangerous conditions.”
Drones are already being used for life-saving purposes on some European beaches, including in the United States Valencia region of Spain and in southwest France.
They have also been tested on Long Island. Lifeguards at Jones Beach, who already use drones to watch for strong tides and monitor sharks, have partnered with the New York State Police to test their effectiveness as life-saving devices, said Cary Epstein, a lifeguard supervisor there.
Water safety is a constant concern in New York City, where beaches and pools are some of the only sources of relief for crowds of often inexperienced swimmers from sweltering neighborhoods with few public swimming options.
Affordable swimming lessons are few and far between, and every year hordes of people who can't swim flock to ocean beaches, sometimes in the hours after lifeguards have gone home.
For locals, a police helicopter hovering over a city beach has become a telltale sign of a missing swimmer.
Every winter, months before beaches and pools open, the city struggles to recruit, train and certify new and returning lifeguards to support one of its chronically understaffed workforces. In recent years, a shortage of staff has led to the partial closure of beaches and pools to swimmers.
Last year, the city suffered its worst lifeguard shortage ever, thanks in part to a battle between entrenched lifeguard unions and the Parks Department, which manages the beaches and pools.
This year, the city has worked to ramp up recruitment, promising higher wages and a bonus for returning lifeguards.
The Parks Department also expanded its marketing campaign by releasing posters featuring images of real city lifeguards on patrol with the tagline “Challenge Accepted.”
The city added more testing dates and locations this winter, including more pools outside Manhattan, and relaxed the requirement for an on-site vision exam, allowing applicants to submit an ophthalmologist letter instead.
Parks officials said Tuesday that 424 applicants had passed the qualification test — up from 375 at this time last year — to take the 16-week training and certification course required to become a lifeguard this summer.
Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, which includes the two lifeguard unions, praised the mayor's safety initiative but added that “no amount of drones can replace a human. That's why we've worked so hard to increase wages and working conditions for our lifeguards.”
Drones on the beach can also lead to privacy issues.
“Given the mayor's tendency to turn high-tech gimmicks into a police tool, I want to know what's stopping the NYPD from using drones between rescues to interrogate beachgoers,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a civilian investigator. rights organization in New York.
“Given how these systems change over time, something we buy today for rescue efforts could spy on sunbathers tomorrow,” he added.
Ocean lifeguards typically swim with flotation devices to distressed swimmers and escort them back to shore.
In situations where lifeguards are off duty or can't get to the swimmer quickly, the drones can save precious moments before a swimmer goes under, said Mr. Epstein, the Jones Beach supervisor. But getting a flotation device perfectly into the hands of a panicked swimmer is no guarantee.
Janet Fash, 64, a veteran ocean lifeguard chief in New York City, said the drones can be a useful lifesaving tool, but lifeguards, not police, should operate them.
“You have to be trained to recognize a drowning swimmer,” she said. “They could potentially be a good thing, but certainly not a replacement for lifeguards.”