With the US Open quickly approaching, the New York Police Department announced they will be taking out any unauthorized objects flying over the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the police force ‘now has new independent legal authority to conduct drone mitigation operations at major events when necessary to address unauthorized drone activity.’
This marks the first event nationally where the local law enforcement service has such an independent authority.
Tisch says this power comes from the federal Safer Skies Act, which was passed by Congress last December and took effect in July.
‘This will be the first major event where the NYPD uses this new authority,’ Tisch added, ‘and it will be the first event in the country where state or local law enforcement conducts independent drone mitigation operations.’
According to Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism, the force will be using their ‘own people, our own tools, our own equipment’ in their enforcement of these rules.
The NYPD has been granted authority to shoot down drones at the US Open
This is the first time a local law enforcement agency will hold such an authority
The US Open begins in a few days, with qualifying for the men’s and women’s singles draws
‘We now do what the federal government has been doing, which is traditionally an electronic counter drone mitigation,’ Weiner said.
‘And mitigation is one of the several tools that we use to protect against unauthorized drones. There will be a federal temporary flight restriction as well over this facility and that allows us to take counter measures.’
This is a departure from the way operations ran this summer during the World Cup, when federal authorities served as the only law enforcement able to take drones down.
Tisch says there are no ‘specific, credible’ threats to the popular tennis tournament, but adds police ‘will remain vigilant, and always there will be security measures that you will see and others that you will not see.’
Millions of spectators are expected to attend the Grand Slam tournament, which begins on August 23 and runs through the men’s singles final on September 13.
