BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Buffalo Police Department is trying out an array of new state-of-the-art technology to fight crime in 2025.
They've actually already had a chance to use their new tethered drone which was deployed to help find a vulnerable patient who was reported missing from Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo on December 20. The drone was delivered only 12 hours before the patient went missing.
"The drone was launched and using infrared capabilities within a matter of a couple of minutes they were able to identify an anomaly, a heat source, through that infrared," said Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. "That led one of our drone operators to walk directly to that path, and we located this missing vulnerable person who was, I'll say, hunkered down on some on the ground with some leaves and was beginning to be covered with snow."
The Buffalo Common Council also gave approval for the department to enter into a contract with Dataminr, an AI-powered data collection tool that scours the internet and social media for crimes in progress.
"Somebody could go live stream and actually talk about what they're gonna do, how they're gonna go and do some kind of harm," said Gramaglia. "The AI-powered platform will generate that. We'll get that, we'll get it back to us where the police department can then action that information and try to prevent something from happening."
Gramaglia said Dataminr looks at open-source material, meaning only information posted publicly.
Buffalo Police will also be using a platform provided by Axon, best known for its body-worn cameras, that sends videos from community cameras that sign up, as well as other sources straight to patrol officers on the scene of an incident to help them assess the situation.
Funding for the new technology is covered by a grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and does not impact the City of Buffalo budget.
