Drone ROI in New York: Patrol Hours and Payback

What is drone ROI in New York for security patrol?

Drone ROI in New York is the net gain from robot patrols measured against the cost of the guard hours they take over. For a security patrol, the labor being offset is the work security guards do: walking fixed routes, checking doors, gates and check points, looking for leaks and overheating equipment, and writing up what they see. A robot does not replace the whole post. It takes over the repeatable part of the round, while people keep the alarms, escalations and decisions.

That split is what sets the return. A site where most of the post is a fixed perimeter walk, especially overnight, has more hours to offset than a site where every shift depends on access decisions and face to face contact. The savings range on this page is built on that split, not on an assumed cut to headcount.

How many security guards work in the US and New York?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2023 state table, 121,920 people were employed as security guards in New York State. A secondary summary of BLS data puts national employment for security guards and gambling surveillance officers, counted together, at about 1,272,400 in 2024, with about 162,300 openings a year. Openings show how often posts must be filled, but they are not a turnover rate, and no verified BLS turnover figure was found for this occupation.

Investigation and security services is the largest sector for guards. A secondary summary of BLS May 2023 data puts about 735,430 guards there, or 73.7 percent of the total. Statista, citing 2023 data, reports about 870,000 guards in outsourced contract security, which means a large share of guard hours are priced through contracts rather than in-house payrolls.

For a site owner, that matters because a contracted post usually shows up as an hourly line on an invoice. That line is easier to set against a lease quote than a general headcount estimate.

How does the savings math work?

The calculator starts with the guard hours on each shift that a robot can realistically take over. Those hours are priced on the local wage for security guards, which the government wage data panel beside this text shows. The labor side is those hours times that wage, summed across the posts and shifts the robot covers.

Next, the calculator removes the share of those hours that a robot will not take. People still verify alarms, handle access requests, respond to incidents and review the robot's log, so the robot's share is a fraction of the post. The lease cost is then subtracted. Our integrator team quotes the lease payment after a free site assessment, and until that quote exists the calculator shows a range instead of a single figure.

The result is a savings range, not a fixed saving. The low end assumes fewer hours offset and a higher lease cost, and the high end assumes more hours offset and a lower cost. The calculator uses a planning figure of two people on the post at a site, which is an assumption and not a published count. The site assessment replaces it with your posted roster.

What changes the return up or down?

Three things move the number most. The first is how much of the route is fixed and repeatable, since a fixed route offsets more guard time than a route that changes with every call. The second is how many guard hours sit outside the route, such as escorts, access checks and report writing, which stay with people and reduce the offset. The third is whether the site has hours with no one on post at all.

Overnight and unstaffed perimeter hours usually give the clearest case. Coverage that does not exist today adds value without offsetting any guard hours, so it is worth pricing separately. Daytime posts built around access decisions usually give a smaller offset, even when the route is long.

Lease terms change the picture too. The lease payment is quoted per site, and the term length and the number of units both change the net result each period. Compare the quote against the same measured hours, not against a generic estimate.

Where do the hours really go on a patrol shift?

A patrol shift is a mix of walking routes, checking points, responding to alarms and writing reports. Walking and checking are the most repeatable parts, which is where a robot takes over most readily. Security Magazine, in a December 5, 2022 article, notes that foot patrols can be evaded and that people lose focus on repetitive work.

The same article says drones can spot problems such as overheating generators or leaks, using infrared in dark areas that a walking guard may miss. It also says drones will not replace human teams for supervision and judgment. The table below shows the split task by task.

No published hour figures for drone patrol tasks were found for this page. Each row therefore describes the task, and the site assessment measures how long it takes today and how much of it a robot takes over.

What are the risks to the return and how do you avoid them?

The first risk is overstating the offset. If a route depends on people for decisions, the robot takes less than a simple headcount view suggests. The site assessment checks each task against what the robot can actually do, and the calculator only counts the share that passes that check. Plan for the offset to be smaller than the first estimate, then see whether the return still holds.

The second risk is safety, which affects how the post is staffed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in a 2012 Monthly Labor Review article that the 2009 fatality rate for security guards was about 7.4 per 100,000, roughly twice the all-worker rate, and that nonfatal injuries with days away from work occurred at roughly the same rate as for all occupations. A 2007 BLS fact sheet put assaults and violent acts against guards at 14.4 per 10,000 full-time workers. These are older releases, and no current BLS injury rate for this occupation was found.

The third risk is staffing gaps and downtime. No verified BLS turnover figure was found, so the calculator does not assume one, and the return should not rest on a guessed vacancy rate. The quote should show how spare unit coverage and on-site dispatch keep a patrol running when a unit is down.

Is a drone patrol worth it compared with a guard?

The honest answer depends on the post. A robot is not a substitute for a guard on every shift, and it is not the right answer for a post built on face to face judgment. Market research from Memoori puts security and surveillance at about 6 percent of commercial drone hardware and software sales in 2024, which shows the category is still early.

The useful comparison is on the parts of the post that repeat. A guard brings presence, judgment and the ability to talk to people, while a robot brings steady routes and infrared checks that do not depend on attention span. Put the two side by side on the same hours and the same alarms, and the return becomes clear or it does not.

What is a realistic timeline from assessment to payback?

Expect the work to run in phases. The site assessment comes first and maps the route, the check points and the alarm process. Our integrator team then deploys and integrates the robot, trains the staff who review alerts, and provides go live support on real shifts.

A pilot on one route or one overnight shift is the usual way to test the offset before committing to wider coverage. Payback is measured after the robot is running on those shifts, not on the day the quote is signed. The date depends on measured hours and the quoted lease payment, so this page does not give a number of months.

Ask the assessment to show the timeline in writing, with the phase in which each hour figure is confirmed. That makes the payback estimate something you can check, rather than a forecast you have to accept.

How do I get a precise figure from a free site assessment?

A free site assessment replaces the estimate with measured figures. It records the patrol route, the check points, the hours each post runs, and the alarm and escalation process. It also confirms which tasks a robot can take over and which stay with people, using the same rules this page applies.

Bring your existing guard schedule, your post orders and the contract terms for the posts in scope, because those documents set the hours the calculator starts from. If your team keeps a staffing roster for the site, share it, since it replaces the planning figure used on this page.

The output is a site specific savings range, a lease payment quoted for your site, and a payback estimate built on both. The savings range is the number to test against your own hours. Treat any figure that appears before the assessment as a starting point, not a result.