As beads flew by way of the air and brass bands blared alongside Bourbon Road, a largely unseen pressure hovered above the Mardi Gras revelry: drones.
For the primary time within the celebration’s centuries-old historical past, drones had been deployed at scale through the ultimate, most crowded week of New Orleans’ famed Mardi Gras pageant — to not movie the festivities, however to maintain them secure.
As a part of the 2025 Mardi Gras occasions, the New Orleans Police Division (NOPD) partnered with Verizon Frontline Disaster Response Group to supply aerial surveillance all through town’s carnival corridors. The consequence: greater than 140 drone flights, totaling 45 hours of flight time, throughout peak Mardi Gras celebrations.
The drones supplied what regulation enforcement calls “UAS overwatch” — real-time situational consciousness from above, giving officers on the bottom a reside, high-altitude have a look at crowd actions, visitors bottlenecks, and potential threats.
“That is the primary time UAS is getting used on a big scale throughout Mardi Gras,” stated Chris Sanders, senior supervisor for Verizon’s Frontline Disaster Response Group, which focuses on emergency communication and drone deployment for public security companies. “To be requested for by title speaks to the belief we’ve constructed and the way critically we take our accountability to help first responders.”
Police division drone use expands nationwide
The deployment of drones for crowd monitoring isn’t distinctive to New Orleans. Throughout the nation, police departments are more and more integrating drones into day by day operations. In Chula Vista, California — dwelling to one of many nation’s most refined police drone applications — drones are launched to the scene of 911 calls earlier than officers even arrive. In New York, the NYPD has used drones throughout occasions like Instances Sq.’s New Yr’s Eve ball drop and through massive protests to trace crowd motion.
And only recently, the Palm Springs Police Division vastly expanded its Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. That transfer made Palm Springs the biggest radar-enabled municipal drone response zone in america.
However throughout all police departments — NOPD or in any other case — drone use is just not with out controversy. Privateness advocates have raised issues over warrantless surveillance and the potential for drone know-how to develop past oversight into overreach. Civil liberties teams just like the ACLU have urged departments to develop clear insurance policies round knowledge storage, facial recognition, and accountability.
Nonetheless, departments just like the NOPD see drones as a significant trendy software, notably for large-scale occasions the place floor visibility is restricted and assets are stretched.
“Mardi Gras is among the largest occasions the NOPD manages every year,” stated Officer Reese Harper, NOPD’s director of communications. “Using Unmanned Plane Programs throughout this yr’s festivities supplied our officers with enhanced situational consciousness, serving to us monitor crowds, reply extra successfully to potential issues, and preserve the celebration secure for everybody.”
With greater than one million individuals flooding the streets of New Orleans through the multi-week Mardi Gras season — a celebration that injects an estimated $1 billion into town’s financial system yearly — the stakes are excessive. For the NOPD, drones served as an additional pair of eyes, scanning the skies for indicators of hassle.
What’s Verizon Frontline?
Verizon Frontline, which offers emergency tech infrastructure like cellular hotspots and moveable cell towers to public security companies without charge to the supported companies, has more and more leaned into drone help. Their Disaster Response Group operates on a 24/7 foundation, quickly deploying drones and communications instruments throughout all the things from hurricanes to wildfires.
The corporate’s rising footprint in public security comes amid elevated competitors amongst telecoms to produce first responders with dependable communications know-how — a race that additionally consists of AT&T’s FirstNet community. Verizon touts its three many years of partnership with public security officers as a motive companies just like the NOPD are turning to them.
Whether or not situations like drones at Mardi Gras turns into the norm for large-scale public occasions stays to be seen. For now, the drone’s-eye view has landed a spot within the metropolis’s playbook for public security.
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