State attorneys general want help to stop drones from making prison drops

West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey has joined a multistate effort to combat the rise of drones illegally dropping contraband into prisons.Such drones are being used to carry narcotics, weapons, cell phones and other items into prisons. McCuskey and 20 other state AGs call this drone use a major public safety threat impacting correctional facilities across the country. They say it is fueling broader crime both inside and outside of prison walls.
“These drones pose a serious risk to guards at the prisons and the prisoners themselves,” McCuskey said. “We’ve seen drones used to deliver contraband at a federal prison in McDowell County, so we know this problem is happening here in West Virginia and across the country.
“We are optimistic the Trump Administration will work with our state and local authorities to close this loophole that has prevented our prison officers from intercepting the drones.”
Per federal law, only a narrow set of federal agencies are authorized to detect, track and mitigate unauthorized drones. Thus, correctional officials – who are on the front lines of this issue – often lack the legal authority and the necessary tools to intervene in real time.
To address this gap, the 21 AGs are asking the Trump administration to provide state and local law enforcement with the ability to disable or intercept drones before they reach the prison.
In a March 27 letter sent to Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counter Terrorism, the AGs commend the administration’s creation of the Task Force to Restore American Airspace Sovereignty.
In the letter, the AGs say this “is happening all over the country and the consequences are severe. The introduction of drugs contributes to addiction, violence and overdose incidents.”
The AGs ask Gorka and the task force to work with federal agencies to grant carefully defined authority for state and local law enforcement to address this threat quickly and efficiently. The AGs also recommend continued collaboration with federal partners to investigate and prosecute those who use drones to introduce contraband into correctional facilities.
The effort is being led by Georgia AG Christopher Carr. In addition to Carr and McCuskey, the AGs of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas have signed the letter.

Read Full Article: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/ags-want-help-stop-drones-making-prison-drops?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators