The National Football League wants more restrictions on drones, calling the unmanned aerial vehicles a major security threat at its venues.
The league has seen a “dramatic increase” in the number of threats by drones, the NFL’s senior vice president of security Cathy Lanier testified to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday.
Recommended Stories
Lanier called for a legislative response to the use of commercial drones, saying the devices are cheap and easy to use and stopping them is “extremely challenging” because of their size and portability.
[Also read: Voters split on national anthem protests in the NFL: Poll]
A California man in 2017 flew a drone over Levi’s Stadium, dropping leaflets over a San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game. This year, the league has recorded “about a dozen intrusions by drones at stadiums during games,” Lanier said.
“We’re all very fortunate that the drone over Levi’s Stadium dropped just leaflets,” she said. “Drones today are capable today of inflicting much greater damage.”
Federal law prohibits local law enforcement officials from taking down a drone, even if it’s in restricted airspace and armed.
“We typically wouldn’t get intelligence or information that a drone was incoming, but if we did and if there was mitigation or interception technology available … it would be illegal for them to use it to take that drone down,” Lanier testified.
Senators were receptive to the NFL’s request for reforms.
Despite current laws, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she expects a jury would side with local law enforcement officials and NFL security if they illegally disabled an incoming drone, especially if it posed a threat.
