In the eighth inning of a Mets playoff game last fall, a drone flew over the stadium — illegally, and directly above tens of thousands of fans. Last winter, much of the tristate area saw unmanned aerial vehicles flying over New Jersey, Staten Island, and near Manhattan for weeks.
In these cases, the NYPD saw the drones. Officers tracked the drones. But that’s the extent of what we could do: we can watch, but we can’t act. And if any of those drones had been weaponized and under the control of a nefarious actor, the results could have been devastating.
These sightings were not isolated incidents. So far this year, the NYPD has detected more than 75,000 drone flights over New York City. That number is expected to surge this summer — as mass gatherings, major events, and global headlines all converge. The vast majority of these drones are harmless. But it only takes one in the wrong hands to turn a crowded celebration into a catastrophe.
The NYPD needs to be able to move swiftly and decisively to remove any drone threats to our city and our people whenever they might occur. The technology exists to protect New Yorkers, but the NYPD can’t use it. Currently, only a handful of federal agencies have the ability to counteract drone flights, and these agencies are only deployed for a small number of major events.
That’s why the NYPD needs the federal government to grant drone mitigation authority — and we need it now. Because at the end of the day, this is a local issue.
Just as the NYPD doesn’t rely on the federal government to staff and secure major events on the ground, we shouldn’t have to rely on them in the sky.
And the stakes couldn’t be clearer. Abroad, we have seen how drones are used to drop explosives and fire guns. Some are modified to collide and detonate. Others are simply used as blunt-force weapons, dropped onto innocent targets from above.
Since last year, terrorist groups have released propaganda encouraging drone attacks at crowded venues across the West. One flyer — circulated in English by a pro-ISIS outlet — targeted the India–Pakistan match at the T20 Cricket World Cup on Long Island. It showed a hooded figure standing in a stadium, rifle slung over his shoulder, two drones in the air overhead. The caption read: “You wait for the matches… and we wait for you.”
Hamas has released videos of drones striking vehicles and dropping explosives since its Oct. 7 attacks. These weren’t military aircraft. They were off-the-shelf drones, cheaply produced and easily modified.
And it’s not just extremists exploiting this technology.
Drug cartels in Mexico have used drones to attack Mexican law enforcement and political targets, and to transport fentanyl across the border. Transnational criminal networks use them to surveil U.S. Border Patrol. Prisons in upstate New York and New Jersey are fighting a growing problem of drones dropping contraband into yards.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also pushed the lethality and accessibility of drones more into the public eye. Last month, Russia launched a record-smashing 5,438 drones at its enemy; while Ukraine responded last week, hitting an industrial plant deep within Russia.
The threat isn’t just from organized groups. It’s lone individuals — radicalized online or simply reckless — who can cause real harm with tools that are cheap, available, and easy to weaponize. The internet is flooded with tutorials from extremists and hobbyists, showing how to modify commercial drones to carry explosives, deliver shocks, or evade detection.
Rapidly-evolving drone technology is running circles around today’s regulatory architecture, making virtually every large, crowded event, infrastructure asset, or symbolic landmark a vulnerable target. We must stay ahead of these fast-moving dangers with our own cutting-edge technology and authority.
Thankfully, this is an area the NYPD knows well. The department has always harnessed the latest technological advances to counter threats and safeguard our city, from cameras to radiation detectors to so much more. The NYPD itself pioneered the deployment of drone capabilities to enhance public safety since before the pandemic.
The time for New York City to have its own drone mitigation authority is now. Federal officials must act and give the NYPD the legal authority to meet this threat head-on. Because public safety doesn’t stop at the sidewalk. It extends underground, above ground, and into the sky.
Tisch is the NYPD commissioner.
