New Florida restrictions on drones manufactured by a “ foreign rural area of concern ” set to take essence this week have left local police , firefighters , and even mosquito control team scrambling to maintain normal operations and ensure canonic safety .
ARon DeSantis - backed forbiddance technically implement to drones manufactured in more than half a 12 countries , but its most clear target isdominantChinese drone - take a leak giantDJI , whose products are wide used amongst government agencies . Local functionary and natural law enforcement opposed to the ban worry the sudden difference from trusted DJI drone to deficient US - made option — some of which ad lib combust — could unnecessarily put workers ’ refuge in risk to score some cheap , problematical - on - China political points .
“In one twelvemonth and a one-half , we had five failure of the manufacturer on the [ approved ] list . DJI , none , ” Orlando Police Sgt . David Cruz said in aninterviewwith the Miami Herald . “ That ’s sound to put us in peril , our officers in peril , and the public in risk , when these dawdler continue to fall out of the sky . ”
Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)
Why does Ron DeSantis want to ban DJI drones?
The newdrone restrictionsstem from a spacious DeSantisexecutive orderpassed late last yr with the state role of making it more difficult for “ unfriendly foreign power ” to do business in Florida . That order ban governing agency from procuring ware made by companies base in China , Cuba , Iran , North Korea , Russia , Syria , and Venezuela . DeSantis , who is wide believe to be eyeing a 2024 presidential running , say these blanket restriction were necessary to prevent China from “ squirm its direction into our nation ’s datum store systems . ”
DeSantis used like terminology back in February when he proposed a new “ Digital Bill of Rights ” that , amongst other things , seeks to ban TikTokin university and public schools . Those business over Formosan espionage auditory sensation shuddery and are hypothetically possible , but so far neither DeSantis or any other lawmakers has come forrad with any concrete evidence for their fears .
A Florida-approved, made-in-the-USA drone caught fire in a police car
With DJI and other widely used drones out of the picture , government agencies will instead have to turn to more expensive and arguably less pragmatic US - made alternatives include in the state’sApproved Drone Manufacturer List . The sudden variety marks a revolutionary departure for police agency in special , which have spent over $ 200 million on DJI drones in recent years , consort to theTampa Bay Times . Most agencies talk with the Times confirmed they had already shelved many of their DJI drone pipe but some feared the successor were insecure . In one case , a Palm Beach County Sheriff said one of the approved devices get on fire while it was sit around unplugged in an ship’s officer ’s vehicle . The officer reportedly had to madly pull over and dump the flame hunk of hardware off on the side of the road .
“ Our drone operators do not want to park these laggard in their auto , in their garage , in their homes , ” Palm Beach County Sheriff Col . Robert Allen say . “ We ’ve never had one issue with the DJIs since our inception . ”
Other critic of the ban said it ’s both unneeded and arbitrary since officers can still user other tech like smartwatches and habiliment made in China . Even on the eve of the ban ’s enforcement , agencies still have n’t shown any proof that DJI drones are transpose sensitive data to China .
“ It ’s political grandstanding , ” James Andrew Lewis , a fourth-year researcher at the Center for Strategic & International Studies say in aninterviewwith State Scoop .
Grandstanding or not , DeSantis is n’t the only lawmaker concerned in curb China - linked drones . In the final day of the Trump administration , thenow - indictedformer presidentplaced DJI on the Commerce Department ’s “ entity list,”which prevents the company from buying US products or import American tech . Not long after , during the Biden Administration ’s Treasury Departmentadded DJI to its own blacklistwhich bars US investor from buying or betray pedigree in the company . That blacklisting was , in part , due to the Biden administration ’s claim DJI products were used to transport out the Chinese government ’s surveillance of its persecuted Uighur Muslim nonage . The Pentagon made a similar move last yr placing DJI on a list of companies it believes haveconnections to the Chinese armed services .
“ We ’ve tell unequivocally that we have had nothing to do with treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang , ” DJI ’s Head of Global Policy Adam Welsh told CNBC in a recentinterview . “ The accuracy is that we ’ve gone through numerous audits of our microcode and of our products . ”
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