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Fiscal Committee approves drone‑detection system for special events
Summary
The Fiscal Committee approved the Department of Safety’s request to acquire a drone‑detection system intended to locate small unmanned aircraft and their operators at special events and critical infrastructure sites. Committee members pressed presenters on privacy, mitigation capability and federal role; the measure passed by voice vote.
The Fiscal Committee on March 21 approved the Department of Safety’s request to acquire a drone‑detection system to locate small unmanned aircraft and their operators at special events and near critical infrastructure.
The system, department officials said, is meant to help public‑safety personnel locate an unmanned aircraft and the operator so staff can ask the operator to land the device when a temporary flight restriction (TFR) or other safety concern applies. "This particular system is gonna be used for special events," Lieutenant Chris Storm, Office of Highway Safety, said during the committee hearing. "It will be used for critical infrastructure pieces to locate if people are going against what they call Part 107, which is a part of the CFR, which has to do with flying drones." Storm added, "Airspace is sovereign. So you can fly over anything. It's just like a 737 coming over your house."
Committee members pressed the presenters on privacy and the ability to take down a drone. Senator Rosenwald asked how the proposal would "improve privacy"; Storm responded, "I would say it's definitely more security than privacy." Representative Edwards asked whether the system can interdict or take down a drone; Storm said it cannot. "There is no mitigation capability," he said, adding that mitigation authority currently rests with certain federal entities including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, U.S. Secret Service, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for very large events. Storm said the detection system would help locate the operator by identifying the drone’s signal, which in some cases connects through Wi‑Fi, and that future "unique ID" work is intended to improve identification of individual aircraft.
Representatives on the committee sought clarity on operator registration. Storm said Federal Aviation Administration registration and a forthcoming unique‑ID framework could help link a recovered aircraft’s serial number to an operator, and confirmed that commercially used drones normally require a remote pilot certificate while some users register through a trust system.
Motion to approve the Department of Safety item (tab 5, item 25‑06‑65) was made by Senator Rosenwald and seconded by Senator Birdsall; the motion passed on a voice vote. Committee members did not adopt changes to the proposal during discussion.
The department told the committee the system’s primary purpose is situational awareness and operator location; it does not enable remote disabling or blinding of aircraft by the state. Presenters said federal partners retain authority and tools for active mitigation in defined circumstances.
The committee adopted the item and moved on to other agenda business.
