Dick Durbin Grills FBI Special Agent On Stopping Unauthorized Drones Flying Over Mass Gatherings

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) questioned FBI Special Agent Michael Torphy about stopping unauthorized drones flying over public mass gatherings.

Transcript

00:00For answering my questions, Senator Rubin.

00:02Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

00:03Mr. Turfey, you've piqued my curiosity.

00:0690,000 special events, you say, in a year?

00:10Is that correct?

00:11Yes, sir.

00:12If you determine there is a malicious drone overhead at one of these events,

00:16what do you do to mitigate the threat?

00:19Well, to be clear, there's over 90,000 special events this past fiscal year.

00:24Our team is present at an extremely, extremely small number of those.

00:30Only the absolute highest-risk special events, things like the Super Bowl,

00:34the Indy 500, et cetera, are the type of events that we are present at.

00:37Understood.

00:37At those events, in nearly every mission we do, we see people violating the law.

00:43We provide fair notice.

00:45We implement flight restrictions.

00:46How do you provide notice?

00:48Do they file flight plans?

00:50We proactively coordinate with the FAA to implement a flight restriction,

00:55and that is published on the Internet and on the devices that the pilots use

00:59to fly their drones.

01:00So sometimes it's even geofence where the drone manufacturer will provide some level

01:06of software barrier where they can't fly into that area.

01:10But that does depend on the drone manufacturer.

01:14But how do you mitigate it?

01:15How do you stop it?

01:17It's flying over Wrigley Field.

01:18It's not authorized.

01:19What's next?

01:20Yeah.

01:20For the events that we are providing coverage, again,

01:23very, very small and inadequate amount of these events,

01:26we use a variety of technologies to detect, track, identify,

01:31and then if absolutely necessary, technically mitigate.

01:35We have two forms of mitigation.

01:37One would be the use of what we call ground intercept teams,

01:40which are FBI agents and law enforcement officers that make physical contact

01:44with the pilot.

01:45Again, using, in often cases, the authority provided in the statute

01:48to get that good detection technology, that pilot location,

01:54and we dispatch.

01:55But if this is a bad actor, that doesn't sound to me like they'd be

01:58providing information to our government on how to reach them.

02:02Well, that is option one, sir.

02:04And then option two, if absolutely necessary,

02:06we'll use those technical countermeasures, right?

02:09Equipment that we use specifically designed to disrupt the drone signal.

02:14And I can't get into the details of all of that,

02:17but we have a very good success rate using that technology,

02:21again, when absolutely necessary.

02:22We've had drones go right up to the edge of halftime games for Super Bowls

02:27and such, and we've been successful in repelling those.

02:30Maybe we'll do a classified briefing, learn a little more.

02:33It'd be my pleasure.

02:34In the process.

02:35Mr. Willoughby, part of your testimony suggests that in some ways

02:40we are fighting the last war when it comes to narcotics in this country,

02:44which is a scourge and kills so many innocent people.

02:48And, of course, we're mindful that individuals transport these narcotics

02:53with the simplest forms of communication and transportation,

02:58trucks and the like.

03:00But what you're suggesting is now they're flying these narcotics

03:04into this country.

03:05It's an amazing number.

03:0627,000 drones were detected in the last six months.

03:10Of 2024, and you go through the various ways they are using

03:15to avoid detection in this situation.

03:21We just recently had a debate over a reconciliation bill

03:24where we're investing billions, billions of dollars

03:27in detention facilities and new things that will be built at the border

03:31to deal with the human trafficking back and forth over the border.

03:35How much is it going to take for us to deal with the drone threat

03:39that you've outlined very specifically?

03:43It's going to take a lot.

03:44I'm going to be honest with you.

03:46We have a portion of the border that has persistent surveillance measures there.

03:51But the members of these cartels and these transnational criminal organizations,

03:55they're very smart.

03:56And they move their operations across the border to where operators either cannot interdict them

04:01or we don't have technology in place in a persistent basis.

04:04And it's going to take a significant amount of investment both at the component level

04:10for U.S. and Customs and Border Protection as well as at the department level

04:12to have enough equipment sporadically spread across the border

04:16to be able to detect drones operating across 2,000 linear miles of land.

04:20This seems like a big undertaking.

04:23I'll just say for the record, now that we know that of those who are being deported

04:27in the mass deportation policy of President Trump, 8% have a criminal record,

04:33which means that 11 out of the 12 we are deporting do not have a criminal record.

04:38And yet we're going through all of the infrastructure necessary and process necessary to deport them.

04:45It seems to me that if we're going after real threats, current threats,

04:49and growing threats to the United States, we should divert some of this money from this mass deportation,

04:55which is only deporting people who overstayed a visitor's visa, for example,

04:59instead focusing on what you have identified as a scary prospect of all the 2,000-mile border

05:06that is vulnerable to these narcotics and other dangerous elements that are being sent into our country.

05:13So I would hope we do that.

05:16I yield Senator Cornyn.

05:18I think you're taking over.

05:20Thank you all for being here.

05:21And my comments...

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