Drones on Long Island: Nassau officials seek federal authority to take down drones, ticket operators

Nassau County is seeking federal authority to ticket drone operators or take the devices down, following a rash of sightings on Long Island and elsewhere in the tristate area that has unnerved residents and confounded local officials.

Since the beginning of the year, county police have received 141 reports of drone sightings, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a press conference Thursday at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Uniondale. Of those calls, 117 were made since Nov. 1, Ryder said.

“Everybody's seeing drones in the sky," said Ryder, who acknowledged that all the reported sightings were drones.

"They're a plane in the distance with a light and they’re calling it a drone,” he said.

Since Nov. 1, Ryder said 1,883 flights have also been tracked over the county by 798 pilots.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said that while the county can track drone activity and their operators within 20 miles, only the federal government has the ability to mitigate them.

“I'm going to call on the federal government to give that mitigation technology to local police departments, large departments like ours,” Blakeman said. “We cover an area that has more than 1.4 million people each and every day, and we feel that we need that drone mitigation as well.”

While police can ask an operator to take their drone down, Ryder said only the Federal Aviation Administration can write a summons.

“I can identify that drone and I can tell you exactly who's flying it, where they're flying it, and then we can ask them to take it down. The problem is, I can't take it down,” he said.

On Thursday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was informed that the Federal Aviation Administration "plans to grant temporary flight restrictions over some of New York's critical infrastructure sites." She added that "this action is purely precautionary; there are no threat to these sites."

Hochul had announced earlier this week that a drone detection system had been deployed in New York by the federal government.

Monitoring drones

Nassau police have partnered with the NYPD and New Jersey authorities to monitor drones flying nearby. Nassau police said they are also working with their counterparts in Suffolk County to share intelligence so they can monitor drones flying over the Island.

Drones can only be flown by FAA-licensed operators, up to 400 feet in the air and must be flown within the line of sight from the operators. They cannot be flown in restricted airspace near airports or near large gatherings, Ryder said.

Nassau County has 27 licensed drone pilots and 35 drones, Ryder said. The county has tracked 436 flights that exceeded 400 feet, he said.

The county has deployed its mobile drone tracking command trailer to large gatherings such as the Belmont Stakes in Elmont and the T20 Cricket World Cup this past summer, and on occasions where there is restricted airspace around events, including the visit by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September to the Nassau Coliseum.

Ryder said county police intercepted drones flying near the cricket tournament and also received credible drone threats to the tournament. The police commissioner said he was given authorization during the tournament to take down drones if needed to protect public safety.

Blakeman said police can shoot down drones that are perceived to be a threat.

“I want to stress that the Nassau County Police Department has the authority, and certainly has my approval, that if there is a mass gathering anywhere and there is a drone that is a threat to the public at large, that they have the authority and the jurisdiction and the right to shoot down that drone,” he said.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.