Public Safety Officials continue to examine the use of drones for emergency situations to improve safety and effectiveness. But concerns have emerged about the security of the drones themselves. A two-day Public Safety Summit at the State Preparedness Training Center (SPTC) in Oriskany and Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York reviewed advanced technologies that could help during disasters or crisis situations. Several State agencies that attended the summit already utilize drone technology. President and CEO of NUAIR, Ken Stewart says drones can go into buildings instead of responders.
“…Active shooter, you know you don’t want to go into a building but, you can send the drone in your place with a point of view camera going on it, so you can see where things are happening or any sort of environmental disaster inside of a building. You can send a drone in to do that work for you and protect your officers.”
But a separate concern has arisen. Approximately 80 percent of drones in the US were produced in China and some fear that could pose a security risk. The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) requested that NUAIR partner to host the summit to see what American manufactured drone technologies exist. Search-and-rescue missions and other emergencies were staged. Stewart says the use of drones in such situations can lower the risks.
“Helicopters probably cost $1,000 to $3,000 an hour to fly. You know, a drone is probably $2,000 to buy? A lot lower operating costs because you just have to charge it… carry it in your backpack and you can kind of deploy it in search-and-rescue. Drones are very sophisticated. They have infrared, so at night it can see into the darkness that you can’t see with your eyes. You can get multiple drones up flying in an area that you’d have a helicopter. Quite frankly, it can be dangerous flying a helicopters in certain areas, at certain times.”
Stewart adds drones’ sonar imaging capabilities need to be considered for major federal government infrastructure projects and keep workers out of harm’s way.
“All of these things should take into account this new digital infrastructure that’s required to make these things happen. When we look at the $1.2 trillion dollar bill that just got passed by the Senate, only $30 million dollars was allocated to UAS. And I was like, that’s hard to understand when we already have more commercial UAS flying than we do commercial aircraft.”
The New York UAS Test Site, managed by NUAIR at Griffiss is one of only 5 elite testing sites designated by the FAA.