Drones could soon be used as first responders in tourist areas and in larger districts where officers are stretched too thin, said Anne Kirkpatrick, Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, who floated the idea last week on WWL Radio.
“One of the things we have been looking at is using technology—specifically drones—as a first responder. We’re gonna be doing it as a pilot here in the Eighth District, which is the French Quarter and our CBD. But think about the Seventh District, all of that East New Orleans, a huge mass of land,” Kirkpatrick told WWL. “We don’t have enough officers we can staff out there.”
The concept would be a first for the city, but not for the country nor even for the metro area. In December, Jefferson Parish announced that it would be using drones to respond to emergency calls, in a move that JPSO described as “the future of public safety.”…