They don't go into detail, but surely a fleet of drones with life raft deployment capability is a lot more expensive than just hiring more lifeguards?
I suspect if they put the drone budget into lifeguard pay, they'd find quickly they no longer have a problem recruiting.
Most of the people who have it live on the West coast or down south in Florida, where most of the training programs are. Why would they move up to NYC where the weather sucks, they can only work half the year, and the cost of living is through the roof?
The issues fall with the lifeguard union combined with absurd legal/safety requirements combined with rampant mismanagement. Frankly it is pretty upsetting to go to the beach in Far Rockaway, where you must be corralled into the one jetty that has all the lifeguards (spaced about 50 feet apart). The parks department of course has resources to deploys people with whistles to walk up the beach and yell at anyone getting too close to the water.
Hiring lots more lifeguards for an entire summer is seriously expensive.
I'm having a hard time imagining how a couple of drone operators plus the drones is more expensive than, say, 20 more lifeguards.
Not to mention the drones do things that lifeguards can't do, like search operations and shark detection.
Hiring life guards for a few months is a drop in the bucket that has proven more results than drones dropping a raft operated by an organization that doesn’t even teach CPR.
Where do you get that idea? Lifeguards aren't cheap. You don't just need two -- you need 20, 40, whatever. That's major money.
On the other hand, the drone operators are similarly only for the same few months.
Again, this idea that a couple of drone operators and equipment costs more than, say, 20 or more full-time lifeguards doesn't make any sense.
These are just drones. They're not missiles that cost $100K apiece or something where you go through several a week.
Well https://www.twz.com/air/rogue-1-is-one-of-the-marine-corps-n...
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1colo0...
Meanwhile Ukrainians are DIYing similar drones (including thrmal vision and up to 40km range) for under $1K.
That was just for two drones one year ago. The NYPD has many more than 2 drones. That doesn’t include operator salaries, benefits, training, etc. Furthermore there is no reason why the NYPD needs to be the one budgeting and handling this at all. This is just another land grab by a very bloated and out of control crony organization.
[0] https://gothamist.com/news/the-nypd-is-using-drones-3-times-...
So, is it really cheaper to "just get more effective life guards?"
I would think it would be cheaper on an hourly basis than twenty lifeguards, or more. These are big beaches. That's what we're talking about.
The problem may be Management-Class people who think it is unethical to pay above the bottom quartile in pay or to accept less than the top quartile in talent.
I believe the Management-Class is the cause of most of our problems.
I define Management-Class as people who yell at and fire people whose jobs they could never do.