U.S. Installs Counter-Drone Systems at All 11 World Cup Venues, but Officials Say Preparations Remain Behind Schedule

U.S. World Cup venues, Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. ” The World Cup begins next week and is expected to draw up to 7 million visitors across the 11 American venues.

New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in May that “If there is one threat that keeps me up at night, it is from drones” and announced a multi-million dollar investment in drone systems. U.S. efforts to strengthen anti-drone security.

Federal officials are still formulating rules and training departments to implement last year’s SAFER SKIES Act, which gives state and local police the ability in some circumstances to knock out drones that threaten public safety. The Secret Service told lawmakers this spring that it has spent more than $100 million in the past year and a half on counter-drone technologies.

FEMA has directed $250 million in grants to local jurisdictions protecting the games for drone-related tech.

Washington’s King County Sheriff’s Office, which will help protect Seattle’s Lumen Field, is spending around $12 million on counter-drone tech and will use patrol drones to monitor crowds and venue security during the Cup, Undersheriff Jeff Flohr told KOMO News in April.

Police in Kansas City, which houses both a World Cup stadium and team bases for England and Argentina, plan to monitor for unauthorized drone traffic, disable UAVs remotely, and send “hunter-catcher” drones with nets. ” Police departments in New York City, Dallas, and Houston are pouring millions of dollars into tech that both detects drones and uses drones to fly above active World Cup zones.

The FBI has certified more than 60 law enforcement agencies, including the LAPD, NYPD, and Louisiana and Maryland state police departments, in a first-of-its-kind federal training program ahead of the games. Federal agents plan to deploy radar, listening devices and other tools to remotely take control of hostile drones.

U.S. Host cities to deploy a system combining its drone detection sensors and cameras with the Skydio X10 drone, which can fly autonomously to the location of a law enforcement alert. Fortem Technologies secured a “multimillion-dollar order” with DHS in February to protect American venues using its net-equipped DroneHunter interceptor drones.

Piloting a drone through restricted airspace is punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a year in prison.