Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) asked President Biden for more federal resources to respond mysterious drone sightings in the Garden State over the past few weeks.
“While I am sincerely grateful for your administration’s leadership in addressing this troubling issue, it has become clear that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity,” Murphy wrote in a statement Thursday. letter to the president.
“New Jersey residents deserve more concrete information about these UAS sightings and what is causing them,” he wrote in the letter, using an acronym for unmanned aircraft systems. “Continued reports of UAS activity have raised more questions than answers and led to an outpouring of conspiracy theories on social media and other online platforms.”
Murphy requested additional help from the federal government, with current laws restricting what local and state law enforcement officials can do with large drones spotted flying over New Jersey skies.
Aside from New Jersey, drone sightings have been reported in the nearby states of New York and Maryland. Senators representing New Jersey and New York have issued one letter addressed to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, requesting a briefing on the matter that has alarmed residents in their states.
White House homeland security spokesman John Kirby said there is no evidence of public safety or national security threats, but added that the federal government is working to identify what these drones are.
“So far we have seen no indication that there is a risk to public safety,” Kirby he said Thursdayhe comments received criticism for
The Department of Defense he said there has been there is no evidence that these drones are “the work of an adversary” or due to the work of a foreign entity.
Murphy said the FBI is working with state officials to discover the origin of the unidentified drones.
Senator Andy Kim (DN.J.) made a patrol Thursday night, during which he witnessed “multiple unexplained and unidentified drones.”
In addition to sending the letter to Biden, Murphy also addressed it another Thursday letterthis one to congressional leaders, asking them to “empower state and local law enforcement agencies with the ability to use advanced detection and mitigation technology.”
Murphy also said in the letter that Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) “have bipartisan legislation:” Safeguarding the homeland from threats posed by the Aircraft Systems Act does not manned by 2023, “that would help achieve those goals.”
