From drones monitoring celebrations to 400 pound robots patrolling the Times Square subway station, the New York Police Department (NYPD) introduced many new surveillance technologies in just three years.

Announced on Sept. 22 by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a new step in police force technology is hitting the scene. Making its debut on Friday, Sept. 29, equipped with facial recognition and four cameras, the K5 started mapping out the Times Square subway station accompanied by a human officer for the first two weeks from midnight to 6 a.m. After the trial period however, K5 will be able to patrol the station on its own, according to nytimes.com.

In December of 2020, the NYPD announced that they would be using Boston Dynamics’ robot dog(Digidog), to help patrol the streets. This was short-lived, as it was shut down in April 2021 due to internet backlash and complaints from New York residents. Despite this, on Apr. 11, 2023, it was reported that the Digidog would return to New York streets, according to nytimes.com.

However, not all technologies the NYPD has begun implementing are as futuristic as a robot dog. This past Labor Day weekend, the NYPD used drones to monitor celebrations. Instead of immediately sending out a police force for every call made, the NYPD flew drones to check the scene beforehand to see if the call was warranted or not.

“If a caller states there’s a large crowd, a large party in the backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up, to go check on the party, to make sure if the call is founded or not,” NYPD assistant police commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in an interview with The New York Times.