The concerns for the government are fairly obvious, given the incident where a drone managed to land on the lawns of the White House in 2015, systematic of the way small drones have saturated the market. Combined with the potential for drones to have weapons or bombs strapped to them by terrorists or other criminals and the worries are clear and has led to a document proposing changes that will allow agencies to take action against UAS without fear of penalty.
The explanatory summary of the proposal highlights the issue at hand. Multiple agencies that may face a problem with interfering UAS are noted as including, but not limited to, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and so on, with the activities at risk noted as including search and rescue operations, medical evacuations, prisoner detention, fugitive apprehensions and law enforcement investigations, and so on. The changes proposed in this document would grant authorised members of the Armed Forces and Federal Officers, employees or other appropriate people designated by the heads of these agencies and departments the ability to remove the drone threat in the name of protecting those activities and not face any penalties.
It does also state that the government would have to respect privacy and civil rights when exercising this new power, but it is significant that courts would have no jurisdiction to actually hear the lawsuits resulting from such activity.
The proposal also states that innovation of UAS countermeasures that can protect national safety is stifled due to liability issues, and this is what the proposal is attempting to correct by removing its conflicts with other laws and statutes.
References: NY Times
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