ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Government agencies have boosted their drone fleets dramatically in New York, according to a report released by the New York Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday. According to the NYCLU’s report, “Prying Eyes: Government Drone Data Across New York,” drone registrations jumped 65% in two years.
In 2022, only 530 drones were registered with 85 state agencies. Today, according to the report, 876 are registered with 127 state and local government agencies. Of those, law enforcement controls 508. The state’s largest police department, the NYPD, went from 19 to 99 drones from 2022 to 2024, representing an apparent 421% increase.
The NYCLU argued that aerial surveillance rarely makes communities safer and usually compromises the privacy rights of New Yorkers. And according to Daniel Schwarz, the senior privacy and technology strategist at the NYCLU, “Police departments and government agencies are flooding the skies with highly invasive drones that can track and record our every move without any regulation or oversight.”
According to the NYCLU, the 876 registered government drones are in the following counties:
| County | Drones registered to government agencies |
|---|---|
| Albany | 241 |
| Westchester | 117 |
| Queens | 100 |
| Suffolk | 79 |
| Orange | 47 |
| Monroe | 31 |
| Oneida | 26 |
| Broome | 19 |
| Rockland | 15 |
| Nassau | 14 |
| Saratoga | 14 |
| Sullivan | 14 |
| Onondaga | 13 |
| Washington | 13 |
| Livingston | 12 |
| Erie | 11 |
| Kings | 11 |
| Niagara | 11 |
| Ontario | 8 |
| Wayne | 8 |
| Rensselaer | 7 |
| Schenectady | 6 |
| Steuben | 6 |
| Cayuga | 5 |
| Manhattan | 5 |
| Tompkins | 5 |
| Jefferson | 4 |
| Putnam | 4 |
| Columbia | 3 |
| Dutchess | 3 |
| Essex | 3 |
| Fulton | 3 |
| St. Lawrence | 3 |
| Delaware | 2 |
| Oswego | 2 |
| Otsego | 2 |
| Seneca | 2 |
| Ulster | 2 |
| Lewis | 1 |
| Madison | 1 |
| Montgomery | 1 |
| Orleans | 1 |
| Yates | 1 |
The latest data came from a 2024 Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Aviation Administration. It confirmed findings about government agencies using drones as first responders for 911 calls and ShotSpotter alerts meant to detect gunfire. NYCLU said there is no evidence that such programs provide any meaningful benefit, and that the municipalities that launched such programs—like New York City, Yonkers, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Hempstead—don’t have any public policies about how long individual data is stored or who can access it.
The NYCLU report said that drones can see through home windows to record conversations and track New Yorkers without being detected, raising questions about public safety and civil rights. Some have night vision, thermal imaging, and the potential to install facial recognition software.
The NYCLU pointed out that facial recognition is often faulty. They recommended that aerial surveillance require a search warrant like any other police investigation. The civil rights organization also argued that drones shouldn’t be armed with weapons or “crowd control devices.” And legislators have already introduced a bill to ban arming robots, drones included.
“We must subject drones to public oversight,” the report concludes, urging lawmakers to create clearer rules on drones.
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