Drones are now used by everything from small local police departments with a few personnel to large federal law enforcement agencies, but there were no drones in the air above former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman shot him and three other attendees from a nearby rooftop.
Some officials want to know why.
“What happened here? I think it’s clear that there were, at the very least, security lapses. And we need to understand, for example, why drones weren’t used in that area,” House Speaker Mike Johnson asked on CNN Sunday night. “We still don’t have a satisfactory answer. It’s clear that they did it to see people on rooftops.”
Beyond threat assessment, experts in the field say drones are becoming a common law enforcement tool, with uses ranging from simple traffic control at large events to helping emergency responders reach people with common health issues.
Advances in drones have made aerial surveillance much easier, says Matt Sloan, CEO of Skyfire, a drone company that has trained and provided drone services to law enforcement agencies large and small, including the Secret Service, in how to use drones.
Sloan said his company provides drone surveillance services to private security companies that work at rallies for presidential candidates that aren’t yet covered by the Secret Service, as well as major events such as Super Bowl 53 in Atlanta in February 2019. His services cost about $5,000 per drone per event.
“I’m not accusing the Secret Service or any other agency of doing anything wrong,” he said of the lack of drones at Saturday’s rally. “This is a relatively new technology, and the Secret Service has been doing things well in certain ways for a long time. But there are things that could be useful and are worth considering.”
The Secret Service has so far declined to answer questions about the lack of drone surveillance or other decisions regarding the protection provided at Saturday’s rally.
