Sen. Schumer demands answers on New Jersey drone sightings

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday said he was working on legislation to give local law enforcement agencies more tools for detecting drone activity. He also demanded that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas deploy more federal drone detection resources to New York and New Jersey. Schumer’s demand comes amid numerous reports of mystery drone sightings around part of the greater New York area.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week issued a statement saying that they were investigating the trend and that they were confident the reported drone sightings did not pose a national security risk. The agencies insisted that a foreign power was not operating any drones over the area. Most of the sightings also appeared to be manned aircraft operating lawfully, the agencies added.

What are local officials saying about the drone sightings? Earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wrote to U.S. President Joe Biden to express his concerns about the drone sightings. He requested more federal assistance in getting to the bottom of why these drones were appearing over his state. Over the weekend, Murphy said he met with New Jersey State Police radar experts, and FBI officials to discuss the drones.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday said that in response to her office’s demands, the Biden administration was deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to her state. She urged Congress to grant local law enforcement more options for detecting and countering drones.

What do Biden administration officials have to say? Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday said that there was no question that drones had been sighted in the New York and New Jersey areas. But it was also true that many of the aircraft sighted weren’t drones at all. His agency would continue to cooperate with the FBI and with local law enforcement. He urged Congress to expand the government’s ability to detect and counter drones.

Have any arrests been made for drone use recently in the Northeast? The Boston Police Department on Sunday said its officers arrested two individuals on charges of trespassing after authorities detected a drone the pair was operating. A third suspect presumed to be part of the team operating the drone fled the scene and police are still searching for that individual. The drone was operating dangerously close to Logan Airport, Boston police said. An unmanned aerial detection system discovered the aircraft while it was in flight, the department explained.

Dig deeper: Read my report in the WORLD archives about a Chinese spy balloon that floated across the United States last year.