Despite the recent moves toward liberalizing drone flights in New York, police officials have made it abundantly clear that any unauthorized UAV spotted around this year’s US Open Tennis Tournament in Queens will be subjected to the city’s traditional bum’s rush treatment of aerial reprobates.
In comments Monday ahead of the first day of play at the US Open, New York police officials warned they’d apply a “zero tolerance policy” to anyone getting a drone aloft in or around the Flushing tennis complex. Anyone flying a craft without authorization – a virtually unattainable exemption, the city’s easing of UAV permitting notwithstanding – stands to have their craft grounded and confiscated, and themselves slapped with a fine, arrested, or both.
Read: New York City eases draconian drone rules with new drone permit process
In announcing the wider array of precautionary measures in place to prevent any unwanted or threatening activity during the US Open, New York City police officials stressed their intent to thwart any repeats of illicit drone activity similar to the craft that buzzed an evening match in 2015 before crashing into the seats.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner made a point of stressing the “zero tolerance policy” toward drones at the US Open indeed contrasted the general thrust of New York’s recent, widely publicized steps to introduce greater flexibility in gaining authorization and conducting UAV flights.
“This is an important point, mindful the city has recently changed some of its rules surrounding drone permitting,” said Weiner as New York police, US Tennis Association, and assorted security brass looked on. “However – and this is important – the NYPD and our law enforcement partners have a zero tolerance policy for unauthorized persons found operating drones in and around this center.”
She added that “the operating and flying of drones is strictly prohibited unless you are specifically authorized to do so,” with violators risking their “equipment being confiscated, being subject to a summons, or arrested.”
Weiner noted that New York police would also be “deploying our counter-drone capabilities,” without specifying what that tech would involve.
Given the city’s status as a leading, frequent host of national and global events attended by governmental, business, entertainment, and sporting elites, however, it’s safe to assume those assets span the full range of detection, identification, and neutralization platforms, to incapacitation and control guns, and even electronic lobotomization devices (for craft, not pilots – not yet, anyway).
Read: ‘New York Post’ wigs out over its own report of possible police drone use as first responders
The US Open runs through September 10, at which time New York officials will presumably switch back to their recently adopted theme of increasing drone activity to improve the lives of New Yorkers – including through a broadening yet still limited range of police missions.
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