By DRONELIFE Features Editor, Jim Magill
As each state and federal officials attempt to limit, if not outright ban, the usage of Chinese-made drones by public service agencies, police departments and sheriff’s offices in Texas have taken steps to make sure that those UAVs of their fleets don’t present the safety threat that ban advocates fear.
Within the last several years, many, if not most municipal police departments and county sheriff’s offices within the Lone Star State have established UAV programs. Amongst those police agencies with unmanned aerial system (UAS) programs, aerial vehicles produced by Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) typically comprise the majority of their fleets.
Nonetheless, in recent months, federal officials have taken steps to discourage the usage of drones produced by DJI and other Chinese drone corporations, claiming these products represent a possible national security threat.
A recent informal survey of Texas police departments and sheriff’s offices found that few agencies wanted to debate the difficulty publicly. People who did respond were quick to indicate that they’ve initiated measures to make sure that the info collected by their drones is just not sent to China or anywhere else it didn’t belong.
In an announcement, the police department within the Houston suburb of Pearland said it has implemented lots of the mitigation strategies advocated by the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other security experts.
“The PD has made IT aware of the warning and so they are working to place as many (mitigation measures) in place as possible along side vendors,” the statement reads.
Several respondents to the survey also noted that it will be cost-prohibitive should they be forced to shelve their DJI drones for non-Chinese UAVs, which in lots of cases are less capable and more costly than their DJI counterparts.
For instance, the Austin PD estimated the fee of replacing its drone fleet, comprised entirely of DJI products, at about $120,000.
Background
In December, Congress passed the huge National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 12 months 2024, which comprises provisions banning the usage of Chinese-made drones by all agencies of the federal government. Several states are expected to contemplate passing similar bans and a few have already done so.
In January, CISA, along side the FBI, issued a guidance document, describing the potential dangers that Chinese-made drones could pose: sending data related to critical U.S. infrastructure to the Chinese government. While the document doesn’t call for an outright ban on the usage of Chinese-made drones, it encourages organizations using drones that collect sensitive or national security information to “seek the advice of the Department of Defense’s Blue UAS Cleared List to discover drones which can be compliant with federal cybersecurity policies, when purchasing UAVs.”
An excellent more direct threat to the operation of DJI and other Chinese-made drones is the Countering CCP Drones Act, introduced in Congress by Recent York Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik. The bill, which recently received a legislative hearing, would add DJI to the FCC’s Covered List. Were it to develop into law, the laws would effectively prevent the corporate’s products from accessing any communications infrastructure overseen by the FCC, which might in effect turn all DJI drones within the U.S. into expensive paperweights.
Prohibitions on the usage of Chinese-manufactured drones have also passed on the state level. In 2021, Florida became the primary state to initiate such a ban with the passage of Senate Bill 44, which “limits drone purchase, acquisition, or use by governmental agencies to drones manufactured by an approved manufacturer,” meaning not DJI or other Chinese-made drones.
That law and subsequent laws passed to support it, proved to be wildly unpopular amongst Florida police and other first-responder agencies. A survey of public service agencies conducted last 12 months by the Airborne International Response Team (AIRT) found that 95% of respondents (58 out of 60) said they thought that the recent changes to Florida’s drone laws would “have a negative impact on their organization’s drone program over the foreseeable future.”
Over the past several years, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have enacted bans just like Florida’s. In Texas, laws to ban the usage of Chinese drones was introduced within the 2023 session of the state Legislature but did not pass. Had it develop into law, Senate Bill 541 would have barred any government agency within the state – including local police and fire departments — from the usage of certain technologies, including those of DJI.
Police agencies in Texas nervous
In light of all of the anti-DJI activity on each the federal and state levels, police agencies within the Lone Star state are understandably nervous, as the majority of their drone fleets are comprised of DJI products. They don’t desire a repeat of what happened in Florida and are quick to indicate that they’ve put in place measures to offset the info security concerns ceaselessly related to Chinese-made UAVs.
In an announcement, the Austin PD highlighted the measures it has taken to make sure that data collected by its drones is just not transmitted anywhere it shouldn’t be.
“While sending data to China is definitely a priority, we’re capable of circumvent this by utilizing a neighborhood third-party software company to operate our drones versus DJI software. This third-party company meets Department of Defense standards,” the department said in an announcement.
The Dallas Police Department said its drone program operates “drones and related products manufactured in America and internationally, including China.” The department also said its drone program “has mirrored industry standards” for data security since its inception.
“The united statesprogram runs on a secure network and specialized software is used to capture data, ensure data securityand is SOC 2 Type 2 security compliant,” the department said.
In Harris County, the populous county that largely surrounds Houston, the Sheriff’s office, which flies only DJI drones, primarily operates its UAV fleet using the securely encrypted app produced by Austin-based DroneSense.
In an announcement, the Houston PD said that before its UAS program is implemented by any division throughout the department, “proper evaluation is completed to make sure compliance with industry best practices, legal requirements, standard operating procedures, proper training and certification.”
A recent study by the Texas Department of Public Safety found that the financial implications of swapping out Chinese-made drones with those from the U.S. or other “friendly” countries can be unrealistic for many police agencies across the state.
Pearland PD noted that it uses its drone fleet, comprised primarily of DJI drones “for crime/crash reconstruction, during rescues, and a newly formed DFR [Drones as first responder] program.”
It might be cost-prohibitive for the department to exchange its Chinese-manufactured drones with those on the Blue UAS Cleared List should they be required to achieve this, the department said. “Not the entire drones or drone components we use have a comparable US made drone/component. In applications where we’ve checked out comparable U.S.-made drones the prices have been three to 4 times that of the Chinese-made drones,” the PDP said.
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