NYPD using drones to inspect buildings, bridges after 4.8-magnitude earthquake felt in NYC

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The NYPD says it generally uses drones to inspect buildings, but after Friday's earthquake, they are using them to inspect the bridges for anything that seems out of place.

It may be small enough to hold in your hands, but the NYPD drone is playing an important role following the 4.8-magnitude earthquake that was felt throughout the Tri-State area.
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"We are scanning the bridges up and down, looking for any type of anomalies, looking for any structural defects, looking for anything that's out of the ordinary," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry. "A brick, maybe a loose shaking. And also notice behind us we have our aviation. Our air support is also doing the same thing."

The footage can be live-streamed by members of the Department of Buildings -- yet another tool as they continue to survey for any damage.

As of now, city officials say there doesn't appear to be any significant problems, but say that could change in the coming days.

"We at the Department of Buildings are concerned about some of the downstream possibilities, cracks that you might see that that may materialize and manifest in a week or a month or scaffolding, retaining walls," said DOB Commissioner Jimmy Oddo.



And it's not just humans looking through the drone footage -- AI software is able to analyze videos in a matter of minutes to spot any issues.

Daughtry says the work his department and the buildings department is doing is thorough to prevent something like the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore from happening here.
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"I'm sure when this earthquake happened, before people go across that bridge, I know that they're thinking like, oh, my God, it's pretty safe," Daughtry said. "So we want to make sure that we are doing our job as a police department, helping to the Department of Transportation and Buildings assess these bridges. Even though we don't work for the Department of Buildings."

The Buildings Department is asking people -- if you do notice anything in the coming days, please call 311 and report it.

RELATED | Residents near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey react to the earthquake

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