Adams sparks Big Brother concerns over plan to use drones to fight crime at Central Park
Central Park frolickers could soon find themselves under Big Brother surveillance from NYPD drones flying above them, as the iconic green space struggles with a whopping crime increase.
Tech-loving Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday floated the notion and also using nebulous other “new technology” to deal with a worrisome surge in sex crimes, assaults and robberies in Central Park — including an incident involving three teenage muggers targeting a trio of park-goers that very morning.
“I think with such a vast large area, we could do a better job in using drones to police the area from the sky,” Hizzoner said during his weekly news conference with reporters.
The NYPD, pressed for more details by The Post, forwarded previous testimony from a deputy commissioner on Capitol Hill in which the higher-up said the department would be testing drones to respond to ShotSpotter gun-detection alerts.
“The Department anticipates drones to be operational at the Central Park Precinct in the coming weeks,” an e-mail from a rep said.
But Hizzoner’s Central Park drone pitch fell like a lead balloon among park-goers who spoke to The Post.
“I think that’s so dumb,” said Taylor Clarke Bennett, a longtime park musician.
“I don’t know what the drones would do. … There are so many places to hide and sneak out. I think it’s just better for them to be on foot,” he said, referring to cops.
Serena, 23, a Midtown resident who plopped in the park Tuesday, said she wouldn’t mind drones at night but drew the line at daytime.
“Not in the day! Not while I’m here,” she said while downing a plastic cup of orange wine.
“It’s a little dystopian.”
The serenity of Central Park, a world-renowned oasis in the middle of bustling Manhattan, has been shattered by a surge in crime from menacing teens and crazed vagrants.
Robberies have spiked 222% so far in 2024 compared to the same period last year, NYPD data shows.
The city also saw 10 felony assaults during the same span — a relative handful but still a 100% increase over past year’s numbers, the data shows.
Adams has been an evangelist for using technology to tackle public-safety issues, though with mixed results.
His Times Square subway “snitchBOT” ended up gathering dust after a splashy rollout, a $75,000 robot dog fell on its side while patrolling a parking-garage collapse, and civil-rights groups threatened to sue over his plans to install weapons scanners in the subways.
The city has significantly expanded drone use under Adams, with the NYPD and other agencies operating aerial robots over the West Indian American Day parade and J’Ouvert festival, beaches to spot sharks and struggling swimmers — as well as inadvertently irritate gulls — and, potentially, to answer 911 calls.
The department flew of the aerial robots 647 times between January and June this year compared to the 564 times for the entirety of 2023, data shows.
Adams also hinted Tuesday that he envisions policing problems in Central Park and the city could be handled by another buzzy technology: AI.
“I think AI is a gamechanger on how we can run cities more efficiently, more effectively and more safe,” he said. “What if you could identify a gun as soon as it’s pulled out? That’s a huge, huge boost.”
