The largest police force in the nation is planning to use a fleet of autonomous drones to combat an alarming surge in robberies and assaults in Central Park, the world’s most iconic public green space.
The New York Police Department has already flooded the sprawling park, one of the most popular tourist sites in America, with hundreds of officers patrolling on foot, bike and horseback since violent crime began to skyrocket this summer.
“We’ve got the autonomous drones coming by the end of the month. There are over 800 acres in this park. It’s going to allow us to cover a big territory very quickly and also allow us to get images and video in places where we don’t have cameras,”
Tarik Sheppard, the NYPD deputy commissioner for public information, said during a recent news conference in Central Park.
According to the crime statistics through Aug. 18, there have been 33 robberies in Central Park so far in 2024, a 154% increase from this time last year. There have also been 11 felony assaults in the park this year, a 57% increase from 2023.
The jump in Central Park crime comes even as overall violent crime in the city of roughly 8.8 million people is down 2.49% from last year, according to NYPD citywide crime statistics.
“This is the most iconic park in the world, one of the most iconic locations in the world. There are no secrets being kept here. Crime is up in this park for the year, specifically robberies. Robberies are the name of the game here,”
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference last week.
Chell said the robberies were usually occurring between the hours of 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. He said many of the robberies are being committed by juveniles, some as young as 11 years old, who on several occasions have swarmed victims in mobs sometimes as large as a dozen perpetrators.
“In this particular crime pattern, if you will, that’s happening here at the southern end, from 59th to 65th [streets] on both sides of the park involve young groups of kids,” Chell said.
Source: abc NEWS