Morris County Commissioners Issue Statement on Drone Activity

The Morris County Board of County Commissioners is calling on the federal government to marshal all federal resources at its disposal, including the military, to end the unauthorized flight of drones over our county and other parts of New Jersey.

We believe this to be a matter of national security, and as such our federal government has a duty to the people of New Jersey and the rest of the nation to identify the source of this incursion, be completely transparent about what is happening, put an end to the drones that have so alarmed our communities and implement the appropriate safeguards to protect our air space and our people, now and in the future.

Morris County and our communities have deployed considerable resources daily since the first drones were spotted.

We continue to support the round-the-clock efforts of our Prosecutor’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office and Department of Law & Public Safety in monitoring the drones and responding to reports from residents as well as local law enforcement. Our county agencies have worked diligently with local police chiefs as well as the State Police, the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security & Preparedness and the FBI in the hopes of bringing calm to this situation and to find answers.

It is amply clear, beyond the fact that FAA regulations prevent our law enforcement agencies from taking any defensive action regarding the errant drones, that only the federal government, with its enormous resources and pre-eminent technology, has the authority to clear our skies of this mounting threat to our public safety.  As elected officials, servicemen and women you are failing to abide by the oath you took to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic.  It is your duty to rectify this situation.

We need action now. Our residents deserve nothing less. America deserves nothing less.

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