This move highlights the increasing use of surveillance drones by law enforcement agencies in the United States. A recent survey conducted by researchers at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law reveals that around a quarter of police departments in the country now employ drones for various purposes.
What’s more surprising is the source of this technology. Among the suppliers to the NYPD is Skydio, a Silicon Valley company that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to create user-friendly drones, enabling officers to operate them with minimal training. Skydio has secured backing from prominent venture capital (VC) firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. The NYPD is also procuring drones from brinc, a startup that produces flying machines equipped with night-vision cameras capable of breaking through window panes. brinc counts Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), and Index Ventures, another prominent VC firm, among its investors.