Overview
- Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Friday that trained NYPD counter-drone teams will independently detect and neutralize unauthorized drones over the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the U.S. Open.
- The move relies on authority created by the Safer Skies Act and a federal rule that took effect on July 1, which lets state and local agencies operate mitigation systems after officers complete federal training and certification.
- Officials said a federal temporary flight restriction will cover the site and that mitigation tools can include systems that detect and track drones and, in some cases, jam or take electronic control of them, though Tisch did not specify the exact equipment to be used.
- The counter-drone teams will be part of a broader security posture of hundreds of officers working 24/7 with bomb squads, aviation and K-9 units, concrete perimeter barriers, expanded screening and coordinated transit support for roughly 1.2 million expected attendees.
- Law enforcement leaders framed the move as a new model for event security that decentralizes operational control to local forces while stressing there are no specific credible threats now and that the authorization could change how future major events respond to drone activity.