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Senator Umberg Adjusts Proposed Bill in Response to Law Enforcement Concerns Over Operational Impact
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
A California state lawmaker, who had introduced a bill to forestall local law enforcement agencies from purchasing Chinese-made drones, said he plans to ease the restrictions within the proposed laws after getting pushback from police agencies that operate such drones.
As originally proposed, Senate Bill 99, recommend by State Senator Tom Umberg would have prevented law enforcement agencies from obtaining “military equipment,” including drones, if the equipment is prohibited from purchase by branches of the U.S. armed forces.
The laws is geared toward stopping police agencies from buying drones and related equipment manufactured within the People’s Republic of China, especially DJI products. In a press release announcing the introduction of the laws on June 19, Umberg said current state law police agencies are allowed to buy DJI products, despite growing fears that they may present cybersecurity risks.
“Earlier this yr, reported that cybersecurity researchers have found that Beijing could potentially exploit vulnerabilities in an app that controls the drone to achieve access to large amounts of private information,” he wrote. He also noted that the Pentagon has banned using DJI products and people of other Chinese drone makers.
Law Enforcement Response to Proposed Chinese Drone Ban in California
Nevertheless, in an interview with DRONELIFE, Umber said that after filing SB 99 he has heard from a variety of law enforcement agencies expressing concern that concerning the bill’s potential antagonistic impact on their drone operations. For a lot of California law enforcement agencies, DJI products form the backbone of their drone operations.
“The law enforcement officials which have called me, including a number in my very own area, I feel that they’ve legitimate concerns,” Umberg said. “And, what I’m attempting to do is address those concerns by, for instance, delaying implementation or providing a possibility for them to, in essence, cleanse the drones from software that could be used to transmit information to places which are unintended.”
The laws is scheduled to return up for hearing before the State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, July 2. Umberg said he plans to introduce a draft amendment to the bill that may accomplish two things.
It might delay for 2 or possibly three years the implementation of the laws; and it might make clear that police agencies would still have the option to make use of currently owned DJI products, providing that they modify the software to make sure that the drones wouldn’t have the option to transmit data aside from to the police agency itself.
Umberg said he believes that the law enforcement agencies that had expressed concerns over his bill would ultimately accept the compromises he plans for offer.
“I’d expect that they’ll find them to be okay. I don’t expect that at any point they’re going to be joyous, but what we would like to do is, we would like to make certain that our domestic fleet of drones is in step with our national security concerns,” he said.
Under current state law, a law enforcement agency is required to hunt the approval of a governing body — within the case of a municipal police department, a city council — before purchasing military equipment. SB 99 adds the supply that such a purchase order could only be made if “the USA Armed Forces has not been prohibited by federal law or regulation from purchasing the military equipment from the manufacturer or seller.”
In 2018, the Department of Defense issued a ban on the acquisition and use of all business off-the-shelf drones, no matter manufacturer, resulting from cybersecurity concerns. The next yr, Congress passed laws specifically banning the acquisition and use of drones and components manufactured in China.
Umberg said that as a matter of national security, his proposed laws would bring law enforcement agencies within the state into compliance with DOD standards, by eliminating the acquisition of Chinese-made drones.
“So, I feel at the tip of the day, law enforcement will likely be OK with regardless of the law that we enact is, because they share our concerns. They don’t wish to be transmitting sensitive, precious information, for instance, to the Chinese government.”
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