The New York City Police Department has stood up a permanent counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) unit with authority to electronically disable and take down hostile drones, a capability previously reserved for federal agencies, as the FIFA World Cup, America 250, and other summer events prepare to draw millions of visitors to the city.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the department has purchased $6.5 million in drone mitigation equipment at a May 21 press conference.
The Safer Skies Act, passed by Congress in December 2025, created the legal framework extending counter-drone authority to state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement. While federal agencies continue to finalize permanent implementation rules, the NYPD unit is expected to remain operational after the World Cup ends — which would make it among the first standing local C-UAS capabilities in the United States.
“Tactics that once belonged to militaries are now increasingly accessible to smaller groups and individuals, and commercial drones can be easily adapted into weapons of war,” Tisch said at the press conference.
Tisch described the drone threat as the issue that “keeps me up at night,” citing battlefield drone proliferation in Ukraine and Iran. NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner echoed the concern. “It wasn’t a threat years ago,” Weiner said. “It is now.”
The FBI is fielding roughly 60 specially trained state and local officers across 11 U.S. host cities for the World Cup, directly overseeing C-UAS operations in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed half of a $500 million counter-drone appropriation from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to host jurisdictions.
The scale of NYPD drone operations provides context for the C-UAS investment. According to the department’s first-quarter 2026 UAS operations report, the NYPD deployed drones 2,595 times between January and March — 2,075 of those as a first responder, primarily in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The department also conducted 62 warrant-authorized drone deployments in the same period.
“The rules are still being written,” a drone industry official told Politico, speaking anonymously, describing the challenge of implementing the Safer Skies Act during live operations.
“NYPD personnel are positioned to work with our federal partners under new authority to confront credible drone threats at major events, lawfully and effectively,” Tisch said.
