The New York Police Department has urged the Trump administration to grant it the authority to take down drones in the city’s skies, as local officials across the United States grapple with the growing threat from cheaper versions of the machines.
The department has the authority to detect drones but cannot electronically disable them, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Tuesday, a day before federal authorities shut down the airspace around El Paso because of what U.S. officials said was an incursion of drones piloted by Mexican cartels.
However, two people briefed by administration officials said the shutdown had been prompted by the Defense Department’s use of a new counter-drone technology and concerns about the risks it could pose to other aircraft in the area.
“If there is one threat that keeps me up at night, it is drones,” Ms. Tisch said on Tuesday in Manhattan during an annual address on the state of the Police Department. “We expect to receive that authority from the White House this year, which we have long advocated for.”
Ms. Tisch said that the department had invested millions of dollars in equipment and training to limit drone threats, and that it would be ready to begin mitigation operations “as soon as we are legally allowed to do so.”
The use of drones in wars across the world, especially in Ukraine, which has become a testing ground for new weapons, has increased as the technology to produce the machines has become cheaper, redefining how militaries think about combat. While the United States has sophisticated drones like the MQ-9 Reaper, which was used in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has lagged behind Russia and China in developing and building a stockpile of cheaper drones.
The confusion over the closure of the airspace in El Paso has highlighted how unprepared U.S. authorities are to handle the proliferation of inexpensive drones, whether by foreign armies, terrorists or unregistered hobbyists. The Pentagon has said it wants to buy cheaper drones quickly to combat this growing threat.
The hands of local government officials are generally tied because the Federal Aviation Administration controls airspace in the United States and federal law enforcement agencies are responsible for taking down unregistered drones.
But the changing technological landscape has made it imperative for the New York Police Department — the largest municipal law enforcement agency in the country — to be able to eliminate potential drone threats, Ms. Tisch said.
“Modern conflict is reshaping the tools that can be used in cities like ours,” Ms. Tisch said on Tuesday during her speech. “Tactics that once belonged to militaries are now increasingly accessible to smaller groups, and individuals and commercial drones can be easily adapted into weapons of war.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
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