Those aren't mystery drones, NYPD says. They might be 'business as usual.'

Catalina Gonella

Published Dec 16, 2024

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner, Intelligence & Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner in August.

Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Catalina Gonella

Published Dec 16, 2024

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

While reports of drone sightings in New York City are up, the actual number of drones flying above the city has remained steady, according to the NYPD.

Since mid-November, a spate of mystery drone-sighting reports — largely in New Jersey, but now in several other states as well — has fueled online conspiracy theories and speculation. Some lawmakers have been pushing the federal government to explain the sightings, some of which officials have confirmed were near military facilities and near Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. The FBI, the federal Homeland Security Department and local agencies are reportedly investigating.

But Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, said Monday that news stories and social media posts may have led New Yorkers to be more vigilant than usual, causing a spike in reporting in the city. Many of the sightings have turned out not to be drones at all, she said.

“All people are seeing on the news is drone sightings everywhere, so we're getting a lot of misattributed activity, right? So planes, helicopters, in some cases, planets, meteor showers that are all being called in as potential drone sightings,” she said. “ Which is fine. We tell the public all the time: ‘If you see something, say something.’ But also you might not be seeing something that is unusual. You might be seeing something that is business as usual.”

She said there are lots of commercially available hobby drones flown in the city routinely as well.

Weiner said that according to the NYPD’s own tracking, there are on average around 2,000 drone flights in the city a week — many permitted, and others that are not. And while that is a lot, it is not unusual, she said.

The NYPD can penalize those who fly drones without permits, but doesn’t currently have the authority to directly interfere with the flights — something only the feds can do, she said.

Weiner said the NYPD is pushing Congress to change that.

“ It would be very helpful to us because there is a potential public safety risk that's quite apart from nefarious drone activity, right? That's just people flying these things as a hobby into a building and it falling and killing someone,” she said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul also said on X this weekend federal authorities were planning on sending a drone detection system to New York state, but she also called on Congress to give local authorities more power to deal with drones. Drone reports temporarily shut down runways Stewart International Airport, about 60 miles north of New York City, Friday night.

But Weiner said Monday the NYPD has been able to explain all drone reports in the city so far as typical activity.

“There's definitely information that we wouldn't have awareness of, right? Even classified information, potentially. So I'm not going to ever say something is impossible, but that just feels very inconsistent with the information we have from federal partners,” she said.

Weiner also said some residents are flying drones in order to investigate the sightings on their own.

“Then you can create the public safety threat that you're trying to investigate. So, another part of this is NYPD is discouraging unilateral investigative action by civilians, which sounds ridiculous, but it's really happening,” she said.

Tagged

new york city

public safety