Suffolk police officers using drones as first responders under a new program, county officials say

Suffolk County officials unveiled a public safety initiative Thursday to use drones as first responders, which they said will provide police with immediate information from crime scenes, traffic accidents and searches for missing people.

The "Drones as First Responders" initiative will speed up response times, help officers track criminal suspects and provide authorities with the information they need to deploy the proper resources for critical incidents, Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine and Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said at a news conference in Yaphank.

"We are able to get a scene sometimes in seconds" with drones, Catalina said. "That could be invaluable in saving lives, in officer safety, in finding missing people, in finding criminals. It is valuable technology and we are happy to bring it to Suffolk County."

The initiative is already operating in the department’s Second Precinct, Catalina said, and should be up and running in the First Precinct and Third Precinct within six weeks. Romaine said the program will expand to the rest of Suffolk’s seven precincts in 2026. The plan, the officials said, is to equip each precinct with at least one drone.

"We might have four in the Seventh Precinct because the Seventh Precinct is geographically so big," Catalina said. "But we are going to start with one in every precinct and expand it as we go."

The drones are equipped with cameras that will feed video to the Suffolk Crime Analysis Center in Yaphank, which will then relay information about crime scenes and other incidents to responding officers.

"If someone is lost in the woods, you are going to be able to find them," Romaine said. "If someone is speeding away and we don’t chase, because we don’t want accidents to happen, we can get their license plate. If there is a situation where there is smoke coming from a house and we want to check out if there is a fire, we can send the drone up to take a look and respond immediately. There are a hundred different instances where this drone can help us protect Suffolk."

The police department has five licensed drone pilots, Catalina said, and Skydio, the company that manufactures the drones and related technology, has been working with the department to train other officers.

The drones themselves do not pose significant threats to the public, the officials said. They automatically change course before they collide with an object and are programmed to return to base if they lose connection with operators. They also are equipped with parachutes to minimize damage or injury if knocked out of the sky.

The program costs about $600,000, Catalina said, which includes five drones as well as docking stations that will be placed on the roofs of precinct houses and other government buildings. The docking stations and other technology are one-time purchases. Each additional drone will cost about $30,000.

The county used a New York State law-enforcement technology grant to pay for its first five drones, docking stations and other technology, officials said.

"It has not cost taxpayers any money at all up to this point," Catalina said.

"But it is going to make Suffolk County a lot safer," Romaine added.