The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to do more to help state, local, and Tribal authorities use technology resources necessary to investigate unauthorized aerial drone activity, according to a June 6 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
The report explains how the FAA requires drones to be equipped with a Remote ID feature that allows authorities to identify drones and investigate any unauthorized drone activity.
“GAO found that FAA has limited resources to support tribal, state, and local law enforcement on using the technology,” GAO said. “Tribal, state, and local law enforcement agencies GAO contacted had little knowledge of Remote ID or how it could be used in their investigations.”
“Developing such resources could help FAA better support law enforcement’s ability to use Remote ID,” GAO said.
The report also talks about development of a new interface technology that could help in the identification of drones, but the new tech does not yet have a release date for use by law enforcement authorities.
“FAA is developing an interface to provide drone registration information from Remote ID to law enforcement but does not have a plan or timeline for releasing it,” said GAO. “At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is developing an application for law enforcement that would link to FAA’s interface, but DHS similarly does not have a plan or timeline for the effort.”
“As a result, law enforcement may continue to experience delays with accessing real-time information needed to track and investigate unauthorized drone activity,” the Federal watchdog agency said.
GAO made several recommendations to FAA and one to DHS, with both agencies concurring:
- FAA should develop resources to help tribal, state, and local law enforcement use Remote ID;
- FAA should develop a plan and timeline for deploying FAA’s interface in collaboration with DHS and DOJ;
- FAA should identify a path forward for how to provide real-time, networked data about the location and status of drones. This could include identifying and assessing short-term and long-term options and clarifying roles and responsibilities; and
- DHS should develop a plan and timeline for deploying its Remote ID app in collaboration with FAA and the Department of Justice.
