The White House will soon be requesting that law enforcement and security agencies be allowed to track and shoot down civilian drones, according to Bloomberg’s report. An official familiar with the matter told the publication that the effort has been going on for months and involves a number of US agencies, but didn’t specify much detail about the plan. The news emerged during the FAA’s third annual Unmanned Aircraft Systems Symposium in Baltimore this week.
Right now, it’s possible to track, take control of or even taken down drones using radio-control signals, but due to wiretapping rules and aviation regulations, they prevent law enforcement from using the currently available rules to take civilian drones down, according to the official.
It’s unclear at this time whether the White House proposal was discussed at the event, Bloomberg notes that the FAA is working on new regulations that force some smaller consumer drones to broadcast their identity and location for law enforcement purposes. Previously, Trump signed a law that revived the FAA requirement for small UAV registration, but two months before that, he announced a new pilot program that would exempt companies and local governments from certain FAA regulations.
