On December 19, the National Sherrifs’ Association (NSA) released a oświadczenie calling for further transparency and government coordination in response to the recent obserwacje dronów across the United States. The NSA represents over 3,000 elected sherrifs across the US and is their primary advocacy group in Washington DC.
The statement, released by NSA President Sheriff Kieran Donahue (Canyon County, I.D) and Sheriff Michael Mastronardy (Ocean County, N.J.) alleges a lack of transparency and the withholding of information by the Biden Administration, with Sheriff Donahue stating:
“As the President of the NSA, I continue to be deeply concerned by the lack of transparency and deliberate stonewalling of information from the Biden Administration. They have continually failed to provide adequate information or assistance to local law enforcement in response to the drone issue in New Jersey and elsewhere, and it has left the American people on edge.”
Likely in response to the recent TFRs issued in both New Jersey and New York, Sheriff Donahue continued with:
“Our federal government can’t have it both ways, where one agency refuses to admit the drones exist while another sets regulation to limit them and ban airspace. Is there something they are not telling the citizens of this country, or is it that they just don’t know?”
This latter point from Sheriff Donahue highlights the inherent difficulty faced by the federal government in formulating a response to the increasing panic around the drones. It is difficult from a messaging perspective to on the one hand try and reassure the public that they don’t pose a risk, while simultaneously enacting TFRs to try and ground them.
Later in the statement, Sherrif Mastronardy commented that:
“Our federal partners need to communicate better with local agencies. We need to understand all the facts of the situation that has vast effects on our communities and the ability for me to keep them safe and communicate effectively to what citizens should be doing.”
This statement echoes the sentiment of comments delivered to lawmakers on Capitol Hill on May 1 by General Jim Slife, Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force. General Slife then stated that:
“Although the services coordinate effectively together, and leverage each other’s capabilities, every single locale has its own story… and so, there is no national approach to counter this small UAS issue. It is local issue by local issue.”
As the recent crisis and Sherrif Mastronardy’s comments demonstrate, General Slife’s concerns were prescient and it is now up to federal, state and local governments to conduct the unenviable task of acting upon them while the issue dominates the headlines.
