OKLAHOMA CITY — After reports of unidentified drone sightings soared throughout America’s northeast and even in parts of Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt directed the Department of Public Safety to take preemptive action.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol announced the delivery and operational status of four mobile drone detection systems on Jan. 21 for use anywhere within the state.
"Our drone operators in our first responder work also trained up in how to deploy and use these drone detection systems," Oklahoma DPS commissioner Tim Tipton told 2 News via Zoom. "So they're up and operational and deployable now.”
Commissioner Tipton said the four anti-drone detectors cost the state $30,000.
Oklahoma is no stranger to the industry of drones, or unmanned aerial systems. Jamey Jacob, PhD is Director of OSU Unmanned Systems Research Institute and is familiar with the units now used by state troopers.
“Really, what these systems do are look for the signal that drones send out," Jacob said. "It's called remote ID. That says, ‘Hey, I'm a drone, and I'm flying through the national airspace.’ So if you're operating a system legally, that's really what those drones are set to detect.”
However, that cannot happen if the drone operator is not operating legally. The remote ID can be disabled, the expert said.
"And this is the problem within the counter-UAS industry at large. It’s that we do not have a good solution right now,” Jacob said.
From the federal investigation of drones in the northeast part of the country, only two arrests were made for flying a drone close to an airport.
No arrests were made in any Oklahoma cases, and there's no active investigation in the Sooner state.
The detection systems, Tipton said, will only be used in certain situations, like if unidentified drones are spotted by a highway, power plant, or disaster area.
“If a local law enforcement agency, county, or municipality has a sighting of a drone and it's over an area that we would consider as critical infrastructure, then we can deploy that system,” Tipton said.
That, Jacob said, does present an upside.
“It's nice to see that we're at least putting some resources behind this, even if it's a little scant to start with,” Jacob added. “It is better than nothing at this stage.”
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
