EXCLUSIVE — The New York Police Department and FBI are prepared to take down any hostile, even explosive-laden, drone that poses a threat to the thousands in attendance at the Macy's July 4th Fireworks Show Thursday.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview Tuesday that the fireworks display is a no-fly zone during the event, and the agency will have a federal drone mitigation team on site Thursday evening to respond to any problematic unmanned aerial systems flying over the crowds on the Hudson River.
"With the technology the drone has, we don't know with these hostile drones what type of technology they have in them," Daughtry said. "Our biggest concern here is if they have some sort of explosive device that's attached to the drone and want to put it over a large group of people and detonate it. That's just a huge concern for this agency."
The NYPD and FBI have not publicly disclosed any known threat, and the event will be heavily policed, as is the case for all major events in the city. Other drone operators, such as spectators trying to get a good picture from the sky, can also expect to have their drones taken down.
"Let's say I decided to put a drone up, and it's not registered with the department. Like, it goes through our permitting process," said Daughtry. "[The FBI] can take that drone down and return it back to base, where it launched from."
The NYPD will have its own counterterrorism teams on-site at the fireworks show and some of its 85 drones up in the air to keep an eye on the crowds.
New York police have their own drone mitigation software and can track what is flying in the sky. However, local and state police cannot take down an unpermitted or hostile drone — only federal authorities, such as the FBI or Department of Homeland Security, have the legal authority to do so.
Federal law enforcement from the FBI and the DHS met with NYPD officials in New York earlier this week to discuss the plans for securing the fireworks show, according to Daughtry.
While drones are often thought of as toys, officials have become increasingly worried in recent years about the threat they pose.
In January 2015 , a drunken government employee infamously flew a drone over the White House grounds. The incident was followed by similar ones again in May and again in October , prompting government and private-sector officials to consider the need to protect vulnerable places due to the fresh possibility for spying or attacks.
In 2018, the DHS and FBI identified drones as one of the greatest national security threats to America — rating it as severe a concern as cybersecurity hacks, critical infrastructure attacks, and terrorism.
Drones are already used by transnational criminal syndicates and drug cartels that use them to move substances such as fentanyl over the border wall and spy on federal authorities at the border. The technology is readily available to terrorist groups.
The National Football League’s top security official is just as worried about drones as the federal government. Cathy Lanier, a former chief of police in Washington, D.C., who now serves as NFL vice president of security, testified before the Senate during the Trump administration that the league had documented nearly a dozen drone incidents in 2018.
Taking drones out of the sky is a new and evolving problem for police. Physically shooting a drone is nearly impossible, given that they can fly extremely fast and often go undetected hundreds of feet above ground and out of sight.
Additionally, a drone that is shot out of the sky could harm people or animals below it.
Handheld systems, similar to bullpup rifles, can send an invisible electronic signal to the drone with instructions that override what the pilot is telling the drone to do. These tools can also jam local cell phone towers to halt all other activity in order to get that electronic communication to the drone instantly.
Other devices create an invisible blanket over an area that prohibits drones from flying into them. Both types of counterdrone measures are less than a decade old and are rarely used by federal, state, and local law enforcement due to legal constraints and cost.
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Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY), whose district includes part of Long Island, has focused on the drone concern and counterdrone measures during his time as chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology.
"Ensuring law enforcement agencies across the country have the resources needed to combat threats posed by drone use remains a central focus of my work on the House Homeland Security Committee, and I will continue working with former colleagues from the NYPD as well as other partners in law enforcement to safeguard the public," said D'Esposito in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
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