By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
If the Countering CCP Drones Act, currently pending before the U.S. Senate, becomes federal law, it could lead to big changes for drone programs within the state of Texas, as any latest DJI drone models can be effectively banned. (Earlier types of the bill called for drones currently in use to be grounded, newer versions could impact only future models.) Read the text of the Countering CCP Drones Act in its current form here.
FAA Data on Law Enforcement Drone Fleets
In line with data from the Federal Aviation Administration, as of March 18, there have been 966 AUVs registered to police and sheriff’s departments within the Lone Star State. Of that total, 879 were products produced by DJI, the corporate specifically targeted by the Act.
Of the 87 non-DJI drones registered to Texas police agencies, 56 were either made in China or produced by Chinese-affiliated corporations. Of those, 43 were products of Autel Robotics, an organization based in China, but which manufactures drones within the U.S., using U.S. components and labor, with a purpose to get around laws specifically geared toward products made in China.
Eight drones flown by Texas police agencies are products of YUNEEC, based within the town of Jinxi in Jiangsu Province, China. 4 of the drones registered to Texas police agencies are products of SwellPro an organization based in the town of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, China. The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office operates a ZOHD drone, a product of Sonic Modell, based in the town of Dongguan in Guangdong Province.
Included among the many non-Chinese drones registered to Texas police agencies were seven American-made GoPro drones; five produced by San Mateo, California-based Skydio; 4 built by Ontario, Canada-based Aeron; two products manufactured by Fotokite, a US-Swiss company that produces tethered drones; three produced by France-based Parrot; two made by Maxsur, a Texas-based company that focuses on products designed for the federal government and public safety markets; two drones made by Massachusetts-based Quick Eye; two by USA-based Brinc; one produced by Denver-based Leptron; one by Oregon-based Teledyne FLIR and one by California-based DSLRPros.
Operation Lone Star: Greater than 29,000 Flights
Like its counterparts on the town and county level, Texas’s largest police agency, the statewide Department of Public Safety (DPS) maintains a drone fleet overwhelmingly composed of UAVs produced by DJI. Lots of these drones are utilized in the state’s controversial Operation Lone Star program, flying sensitive missions along the border with Mexico to interdict cross-border drug traffickers and to keep watch over undocumented immigrants crossing the border.
“The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has 320 distant pilots able to operating the department’s various 350 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In 2023 alone, these pilots conducted over 29,000 UAS flights in support of Operation Lone Star,” a DPS spokesman said.
In line with DPS data, of the overall variety of drones within the police agency’s fleet, 76 are EVO drones, produced by Autel Robotics. Over the past several months, China-based Autel has worked to be certain that nearly all of its EVO drones are produced within the U.S. with U.S. labor and components.
The DPS also flies 4 Dragonfish drones, also produced by Autel, and two C100s, a Blue UAS-approved drone manufactured by Huntsville Alabama-based PDW.
The rest of the DPS drone fleet consists of varied drone models produced by DJI, including Matrice 300 RTK, Matrice 30T, Mavic 2 Enterprise, Mavic 2 Enterprise and Mini 3 Pro.
Countering CCP Drones Act seeks to Limit DJI products
The Countering CCP Drones Act is geared toward crippling DJI’s ability to do business within the U.S. by denying the corporate’s products the usage of U.S.-maintained communication networks. The bill, which the House of Representatives recently passed as a part of the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, would require the inclusion of kit or services produced or provided by DJI Technologies “on an inventory of communications equipment or services determined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”
In a press release, the laws’s sponsor, U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R.-Recent York), claimed that data collected by DJI drones operating within the U.S., was at risk of being handed over to China’s Communist Party leaders. DJI, for its part, has insisted that it has taken steps to be certain that users of its drones could safely retain their data without having to share it with DJI.
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