Drones over New Jersey prompt new detection technology to be deployed
TRENTON, N.J. -- New technology is being deployed to find out more information following the spike in drone sightings in New Jersey and beyond.
Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he got a firsthand look at the latest drone detection hardware from the federal government that's been deployed to monitor the skies of New Jersey. He said they haven't found anything yet, and he's being asked a lot of questions about it.
"This is 24/7. I can't walk out that door and somebody not stop me and say 'Tell me what's going on with the drones,'" Murphy said. "There may be suspicious activity out there as we stand here today, but there is little to no evidence of that right now."
Murphy said the recent drone activity is a wakeup call that the U.S. needs to do better when it comes to protecting the homeland from drone incursions.
Despite drone sightings near military bases and airports, officials say there's no known threat to the public.
Watchung Mayor Ronald Jubin took blurry videos of what he described as large drones outside his home. He's been disappointed with the lack of information from the state and federal government since the drone phenomenon started.
"They seem to be out most every night," he said. "If we don't have answers, it leads to conspiracy questions, whether we know, we're all in collusion. So I always say, is it conspiracy or is it incompetence? I don't want to be tagged with either."
Trump on drones
President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he believes the feds know more about the drones than they're letting on.
"Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason they want to keep people in suspense. I can't imagine it's the enemy, because if it was the enemy, they'd blast it out," Trump said.
Officials said many of the drone sightings reported turn out to actually be manned aircraft. They say there are also copycats taking to the skies for some fun.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there are more than 1 million drones lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We have made an assessment, based on the work we've done thus far, and our assessment is that this is lawful and legal activity, whether it's manned or unmanned. Again, we see no indication of a national security or public safety risk," Kirby said.
FBI warns public about using lasers or firing at aircraft
The FBI's Newark office and New Jersey State Police warned people that more pilots of manned aircraft are being struck by lasers from people on the ground who think they're pointing at drones. They also warned people not to open fire at what they think might be drones.
"There are many different websites and mobile applications the public can access through various governmental agencies and private companies that show flight paths for manned aircraft, satellites in Earth's orbit, and stars and planets visible on a given evening that can help determine if people are seeing UAS or something else," the FBI said in a statement.
NYPD on drones
The NYPD said on average it detects about 2,000 drone flights a week.
"You have a really strong uptick in reporting, but not a strong uptick in actual drone detection, which makes sense. All people are seeing on the news is drone sightings everywhere, so we're getting a lot of misattributed activity," said Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. "We have a lot of commercially available hobby drones that are being flown in the city regularly. For some context, over the weekend we had 120 or so 911/311 calls, which is a lot more than we had the whole month of November. So people are really reporting drone activity."
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he's requesting the Department of Homeland Security deploy a detection system that specializes in tracking drones.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Congress needs to pass a bill to allow New York the authority to detect, track, and potentially destroy drones. That bill, however, has been stuck in committees.
The FBI says it has received approximately 5,000 tips on the aircraft sightings, and of those, less than 100 leads were deemed worthy of further investigation.
