NYPD tests – discreetly – drones for emergency messaging use

If drones are being deployed to keep people safe from sharks at the city’s beaches, the New York Police Department (NYPD) figures they may prove just as useful in broadcasting audio messages to residents of areas facing emergency situations.

That was the logic evident behind Sunday’s testing of drones in Queens by NYPD to communicate audio public safety alerts to people during severe weather or other emergency scenarios. The immediate catalyst of those experiments was flooding many areas of New York experienced in the past week, and the resulting desire of officials to establish future messaging capabilities to assist residents of afflicted neighborhoods where traditional communications systems end up incapacitated.

Read: Draganfly continues scaling drive with new digital advertising and public safety messaging drone

But with that contingency activity taking place within the limits of New York City, the NYPD’s trial drone…