Photographer's Drone Confiscated by NYPD After He Tried to Document Burials On Hart Island

New York City has started burying unclaimed and anonymous bodies on Hart Island, an area that the press is prohibited from accessing.

On Wednesday morning, however, aerial photographer George Steinmetz attempted to take photographs of the mass burials happening on the island by flying a drone a half-mile across the Long Island Sound. Steinmetz has had a long career as a photo essayist for National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine, and has an FAA license to fly a drone.

“These are humans, and they’re basically being treated like they’re toxic waste, like they’re radioactive,” Steinmetz told Gothamist, explaining his reasoning for wanting to survey Hart Island. “I think it’s important.”

Just minutes after he flew his drone to document the scene, Steinmetz said a few plainclothes NYPD cops approached him from an unmarked van and told him to fly the drone back. He said they tried to take the photos from his phone, which doubles as the drone’s remote. They ultimately took the $1,500 drone and gave him a misdemeanor for “avigation,” which the Gothamist writes is, “a law that dates back to 1948 that prohibits aircraft—including drones—from taking off or landing anywhere in New York City that isn't an airport.”

“It makes sense to have a regulation like that for drones if you’re flying in Manhattan, where it's not a safe environment,” Steinmetz told the outlet. “But I was taking off from the shore of City Island, over the water, to an unpopulated, deserted cemetery.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Steinmetz is the second journalist whose drone has been confiscated for trying to take images of Hart Island.

Department of Correction spokesperson Jason Kersten said in a statement, “Out of respect to the families and friends of those buried on Hart Island, we have a longstanding policy of not permitting photography of an active burial site from Hart Island. It is disrespectful.” The Department of Correction manages the island and burials.

Kersten added that between six and 47 people have been buried on Hart Island every day this past week, though the amount is “trending downwards,” compared to the previous week.

“It is illegal to fly drones over most of New York City, including Hart Island,” Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio, told Gothamist via email.

When the outlet asked if the de Blasio administration would grant press access to the burials, Lapeyrolerie responded, “We are exploring ways to do this safely.”