TSA aids Connecticut drone detection testing

U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel recently joined Connecticut and New York law enforcement and police departments in aiding the Connecticut State Police (CSP) with drone detection testing.

“If you want to fully neutralize the threat from a drone, you need to locate the pilot as well as the device itself,” Steve Blindbury, TSA’s Connecticut assistant Federal Security Director for Law Enforcement, said.

Authorities indicated the scope of work involved executing scenarios at Hartford-Brainard Airport, testing the state police department’s ability to locate a rogue drone and its operator by using law enforcement operated drones to find them.

“We know that it takes time to send out a plane or a helicopter to look for a drone that is in the proximity of an airport or in a flight path,” Sgt. Eric Hurley, commanding officer of the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit/Aviation Section, said. “Even though we anticipate adding detection equipment to our capabilities soon, we wanted to see if we could dispatch a police operated Unmanned Aviation System quick enough to locate the nefarious drone.”

The collaboration involving the National Air Guard, New Haven Police Department, TSA Officers, Directors, Federal Air Marshals, and the CSP aided the effort to identify and locate an unauthorized drone from the air with the use of another drone.