Friday, January 17, 2025
Following reports that a large number of mysterious drones have been seen flying over parts of New Jersey and the East Coast, Nassau County officials showcased the county’s drone detection technology, that allows law enforcement to track drones anywhere within the county.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman, at a news conference held at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City on Dec. 19, told reporters that the county’s drone detection capabilities are “ahead of the curve.”
“I have been to other police departments throughout the United States to take a look at their intelligence and drone detection,” Blakeman said. “I can tell you that Nassau County is state-of-the art. We’re on the cutting edge of drone detection.”
Reports of drones
According to a report by NBC, more than 5,000 drone sightings have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, mostly in New Jersey, although drones have been seen in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.
The Federal Aviation Administration banned drone flights in 22 areas of New Jersey, according to a report by AP News.
Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said since Nov. 1, Nassau County has identified over 1,800 drone flights and 798 pilots.
What can Nassau County do?
Nassau County has the ability to track and identify drones that are in the county’s airspace, but is not allowed to mitigate their flying — only the federal government has that authority, Blakeman said.
“There’s detection and there’s mitigation,” he explained. “The mitigation is two types: One is the technology to jam it and have it return to its base, and the other one is to destroy it.”
Blakeman said they’d like the federal government to allow the police department to do a few things.
“We’d like the technology so we don’t have to shoot it down, because that creates a whole other set of problems,” Blakeman said. “But the technology is there to jam it and send it back to its home base, and we want that. We also want federal legislation that would allow us to issue a federal summons in the event that someone was violating the law.”
Blakeman said the county understands that drone flying is a hobby, and there are proper places where one can fly a drone.
“We have no problem with that,” he added. “But when it gets out of hand, like we’ve seen in New Jersey, or if it’s potential form of some kind of organized crime gang or a foreign nation, we have a responsibility to be on top of that.”
Are there credible threats?
The least worrisome threat, Blakeman said, is an invasion of privacy.
“Drones have been known to go into people’s backyards,” he said, “and hover over windows in their homes.”
Drones can pose threats to aircraft by interfering with planes, or they could crash into structures, causing property damage. Large drones, Blakeman said, have the ability to carry material, either biological, chemical or explosive, which is a major concern.
The data collected by the county, Ryder said, indicates that people flying drones are likely testing the system.
“It indicates that we’ve got 798 knuckleheads that keep putting their drones up at night, just to test the system,” he said. “We’ve seen this triple in size and reporting. What’s going to happen in Nassau County — we’re going to ask you to take the drone down.”
Nassau County’s technology
In order to fly a drone in restricted airspace, Ryder said one needs to be a licensed drone pilot. Nassau County has 27 pilots, he said, that have gone to school and learned how to fly drones. The county also has 30 snipers that can subdue threats — like a drone — from long distances, he said.
Ryder and Blakeman showed reporters the technology from behind-the-scenes — massive screens that can pinpoint where drones are flying, and where they’re being flown from. If an unknown drone is detected, patrol cars can go to the location and ask for it to come down.
The county does not have the ability to take down a drone itself, but can make an arrest if someone is refusing to stop flying their drone.
“Right now, we need help from the federal government, especially because we’re a large department,” Blakeman said.
