The NY Times is reporting that the New York Police Department will deploy 14 drones as part of it's fleet. Twenty nine specially trained officers will operate the drones.

This is hardly the first time law enforcement has used drones though. According to Dan Gettinger, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, over 900 law enforcement agencies already use the unmanned aerial vehicles. The New York State Police already use 18 drones as a matter of fact.

Now the largest police force in the U.S. is stepping up.

The use of drones by police has drawn both praise and sparked backlash. Backers say drones could be used to go to remote or hazardous areas where police can't reach, search and rescue missions, or for monitoring large crowds.

Critics say the the flying devices can be used to spy on citizens.

ABC says the NYPD drones will be unarmed.

Since we're just over an hour north of the City here in the Hudson Valley, you can't help but wonder if more local law enforcement agencies will take notice and give drones a shot?

We say more because some local agencies in the Hudson Valley already are. In fact, Greenburgh, Clarkstown, the Green County Sheriff's Office, the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, Yorktown, Peekskill, and Orange County Emergency Services have already deployed drones, according to the Bard study.

Would you be opposed to drones being used by police in places like Poughkeepsie, or Newburgh, or Kingston? Could this help shorten traffic jams, help police pursue dangerous suspects, or maybe reach the vast and remote terrain of the region to find missing cyclists or hikers?

Or are these kind of creepy things more of a nuisance than they're worth? Could they be used for surveillance on citizens?

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