NYPD pushes for broader control over unmanned drones that could pose threat to New York City
Concerns come as hundreds of dignitaries head to New York for the U.N. General Assembly
MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) -- As drones, both big and small, increasingly pose a terrorism threat to large cities like New York, the NYPD is pushing for the ability, and right, to take control of an unmanned drone before it can cause damage.
At the United Nations on Thursday night, the NYPD showed off the latest of a fleet of drones it uses to keep people safe.
However, it's other people's drones that are increasingly the real focus of the city's counter-terror planners.
"A drone big or small, even with a modest payload, in an area with the urban density of New York City, you have a gigantic problem on your hands," said NYPD Counterterrorism Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner said.
An unmanned drone launched from Yemen into the middle of Tel Aviv over the summer, killed a man in his sleep. The drone equipped with a modest payload of explosives, slipped right through Israel's defenses.
In New York, police do have a remarkable network of detectors, which can pinpoint the location of any unpermitted drone along with the person operating it.
There is also technology to take control of the drone and turn it around away from a crowd of people, but local police can't use it. It's against federal law, leaving New York cops powerless to defend the city against this emerging threat.
Weiner and the NYPD has been lobbying Washington for the right to take control of an unmanned drone before it can cause any damage.
"Our desire is to open that up and to make sure we have the capability - the authority before the incident happens, we're not just responding to the calamity," Weiner said.
Kaz Daughtry, Deputy Commissioner of NYPD Operations, agreed.
"God forbid if we see a hostile drone our command center will spot it, and we should be able to have that ability to take that drone down immediately from our command center," he said.
But they don't, and only an act of Congress can change that.
Only certain specialized teams of federal agents have the legal authority to take control of a suspicious drone and force it to land.
They are on the ground right now because the United Nations General Assembly is meeting, but when the meetings end, that team will leave New York.
For now, the NYPD is on its own.
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