John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, told CNN Monday that the drones that have recently been seen over New Jersey and other East Coast states are non-threatening, and “represent lawful, legal, commercial [and] hobbyist drones—even law enforcement drones.”
When first asked by AC360 anchor John Berman about whether the drones could pose any threats, Kirby was clear.
“The answer to that is no. We don‘t propose to see any national security or public safety risk by these drones and these aircraft that are flying,” he said.
“And I would remind people that there are millions of drones that fly over the skies of the United States routinely—thousands and thousands that have registered with the FAA. And a lot of them do really good work for public safety and for the public good, such as law enforcement drones, commercial drones. To date, [there is] no sense and no indication that there‘s a national security or public safety risk posed by any of this activity.”
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas similarly noted in an ABC interview how the increase in drone sightings may be due to how the Federal Aviation Administration last year permitted drones to fly at night.
Kirby continued: “After days and days now of forensics work analysis, detection work and looking at the tips that came in, our assessment is that these drones represent lawful, legal, commercial, hobbyist drones—even law enforcement drones.”
Berman followed up moments later. “You wouldn‘t go as far to say as you have it all figured out. What haven‘t you figured out yet?”
“Well, we’ve still got probably—I don‘t know—100 or so tips that that we‘re still trying to triangulate of the 5000 or so tips and sightings that the FBI looked at,” he said. “They‘ve really narrowed it down to about 100 that they still have to kind of check out that we haven‘t been able to rule out…and as more tips come in, I think that number could go up. So we‘ll just kind of see where we are.”
Kirby concluded: “I can‘t rule out the fact that we might find some sort of illegal or criminal activity, some nefarious activity. All I can do is tell you that right now we see none of that.”
Kirby’s appearance preceded a joint statement from the DHS, FBI, FAA and DoD which claimed, “Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”
The statement reiterated comments from Kirby claiming the organizations have not “identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
However, officials did recognize community fears over the large number of sightings. “We continue to support state and local authorities with advanced detection technology and support of law enforcement,” the statement said in response. “We urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.”
