PITTSBURGH — Despite repeated warnings, police had their hands full with unauthorized drones over the NFL Draft on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
“While that draft is happening there shall be no drones in the air and we have a bunch of really cool equipment to track, locate, we work with the FAA,” Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Rocco Gagliardi told Chief Investigator Rick Earle three weeks before the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh.
From state police, even weeks before the draft, the message was loud and clear.
There were at least two more news conferences leading up to the draft where drones came up.
The FBI even posted a video message and warning on social media that they were working with the FAA on closing the airspace to drones two nautical miles from NFL Draft-related locations.
Despite those repeated warnings weeks before the draft, more than a dozen people failed to comply.
According to Pittsburgh Public Safety, the FBI, with assistance from Allegheny County Police, tracked down a dozen drone operators and redirected them out of the restricted airspace.
Public Safety also told 11 Investigators that State Police, utilizing Wi-Fi technology, intercepted two more drones in the restricted zone and brought them down in the river.
It’s unclear what device state police used, but drone jammers, as they’re called, work by jamming the frequency that a drone uses to communicate with its ground station, forcing the drone down.
The FBI alluded to this new technology at a news conference just two weeks before the draft.
“The FBI is deploying teams and special equipment to make sure that any threats posed by drones unauthorized, are dealt with seriously and quickly,” said FBI Special Agent Rick Evanchec, who’s in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office.
Law enforcement sources tell 11 Investigates that the majority of drone operators were just told to cease and desist, and will not face any criminal charges.
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