Drones Will Fly Over New York City on New Year's Eve

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano / CC BY 2.0

It's an Auld Lang Syne of the times: For the first time, a police drone will be keeping watch over the New Year's Eve celebration in New York's Times Square.

  

The unmanned eye-in-the-sky is the latest wrinkle in the New York City Police Department's ever-evolving plan to keep revelers safe.

  

About 7,000 police officers will be on duty for Monday night's festivities in Times Square, including counterterrorism teams with long guns and bomb-sniffing dogs. Police cars and sand-filled sanitation trucks will be positioned to stop vehicles from driving into the crowd.

  

And, above it all, a remote-controlled quadcopter will be giving police a unique view of the merriment - and any potential mayhem.

  

It's the first time the NYPD is sending up a drone for a big event.

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