US Senator Mike Lee has re-introduced the Stopping Harmful Incidents to Enforce Lawful Drone Use (SHIELD-U) Act to the 119th Congress, intended to support local and state law enforcement in protecting citizens and communities from drone threats.
Senator Lee said the federal government restricts state and local law enforcement’s ability to respond to active drone threats, and that waiting on the federal government for responses to these incidents is problematic as it “often lacks the resources and capital to respond to threats effectively”.
US Congress has granted authority to detect and takedown a drone only to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and Department of Energy. Lee cited a report commissioned by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) which notes the federal government’s lack of human resources or capital to invest in and operate counter drone technology at airports. When considered beyond an airport environment, Lee said the challenge becomes even greater, because federal law does not permit state or local law enforcement to mitigate a drone threat.
If passed, the SHIELD-U Act aims to provide tools for state and local law enforcement to address the growing drone threat. Lee said the legislation would ensure that communities and airports have the resources needed to safeguard their citizens and infrastructure from potential harm.
In addition to supporting local and state law enforcement to carry out counter-drone operations for commercial airports, the SHIELD-U act would also enable them to research, test, provide training on, and evaluate counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) equipment. Both activities would require the consent of the airport operator. The testing of non-kinetic equipment would be done in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The federal government would, if the bill is passed, provide a list of eligible vendors to carry out C-UAS activities as well as a list of recommended C-UAS equipment.
SHIELD-U would require the airport director of each commercial service airport to convene a task force that would establish or modify an emergency action preparedness plan for their airport, which would include a tactical response plan for the detection, identification, and mitigation of threats posed by UAS.
At the same time as presenting the updated SHIELD-U Act, Senator Lee also re-introduced the Drone Integration and Zoning Act, which we have covered separately here.
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