The New York Police Department, concerned about propaganda showing that drones can be used for terror attacks, wants the authority to take down drones it deems a threat, reports the Wall Street Journal. Congress last year authorizing federal law-enforcement officials to disable a drone, including shooting it down. It would take additional federal legislation to give local law-enforcement agencies the same right. “We are a unique city,” said the police department’s Terence Monahan. “We have so many areas we need to protect.”
At London’s Gatwick Airport, hundreds of flights were canceled as a result of drone sightings in December. On Friday, Dubai International Airport briefly grounded flights because of the suspected illicit drone operations. In August, explosives carried by drones detonated near Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in an apparent assassination attemp. A drone spotted in New Jersey in January forced Newark Liberty International Airport to halt all arrivals for 30 minutes. “When you take technology and the tactics of terrorism, those are two things that move very fast,” said John Miller, NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. “When you take legislation and law-enforcement capabilities in this regard—those are things that are moving way too slow.” The Police Executive Research Forum is holding a conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday to hear concerns regarding drones from local law-enforcement agencies. Illegal drone use in New York City has surged from three incidents in 2013 to 550 in 2017. There were 333 incidents of illegal drone use throughout the first six months of 2018.