Loading…
For hours, bullets tore through the home, hitting neighboring houses and cars.
Inside, a man wanted by police for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend was holed up with his new girlfriend.
As the SWAT team prepared to enter, Kevin Fennessy with the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office tried something new first. He sent in a tiny assistant: a small drone equipped with a camera.
From a safe position outside, Fennessy slowly piloted the device through a blasted-in window, while he and other officers watched on a monitor. The video, viewed by NPR, showed hallway walls and furniture riddled with bullet holes.
As it entered a back bedroom where the couple had holed up, footage showed the man’s body on the floor. He had killed himself. With the drone still hovering above the macabre scene, police deployed two flash bangs into the room. The woman rushed out and surrendered.
The incident, which happened about three years ago, sticks in Fennessy’s mind when he considers the value of his department’s drone program, which he heads.
“No one’s hurt. Everyone’s safe,” Fennessy says. “Forty-one times they shot out the house at us. But at the end of the day, we were able to clear the house.”
Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Fennessy lifts an Ocean County Sheriff’s Office DJI Matrice 300 RTK drone out of the custom-built bed of a department SUV at Robert J. Miller Airpark on Sept. 4.
Albert Yee for NPR
hide caption
Albert Yee for NPR
New Jersey’s Ocean County Sheriff’s Office is one of an estimated 6,000 law enforcement agencies across the country that now have drones, used for search and rescue, fire and traffic crash investigations, and tactical response, according to the Law Enforcement Drone Association. It’s an organization that advises, trains and certifies police across the country on their drone programs.
Ocean County’s entire fleet is from DJI, a Chinese manufacturer of drones. LEDA estimates that about 80% to 90% of law enforcement agencies flying drones use DJI devices. China controls a vast majority of the global drone market, and it’s the dominant source for the minerals and raw materials needed to build them, researchers say.
The Trump administration wants that to end. It’s made several moves to bolster U.S. drone makers, including by banning many new foreign-made drones from entering the American market. Most recently, his administration announced tariffs of 15% to 100% on some foreign-made drones, making it much more expensive for agencies to buy these devices.
Critics of these moves say the American drone industry is not yet able to keep up with demand, nor can it match the high-quality and low-cost drones made in China. Law enforcement agencies that rely on these drones are getting caught up in the fight as the federal government pushes back on the dominance of Chinese technology.
“We’re seeing lives being saved with the use of this technology,” says Jon Beal, head of LEDA. He says the organization supports efforts to boost the American drone industry, but that reducing access to Chinese drones is not a good solution.
“What that’s going to do is cancel out perfectly viable drone programs that are doing great work out there,” he says. “We don’t want to cut off our nose to spite our face.”
How much does this cost?
Agencies pay for drone programs in various ways, including with grants and fundraising. The Ocean County Sheriff’s Office uses profits from asset forfeiture and through their municipal operating budget to cover their fleet of 25 drones.
“We have to be cost-effective. And to do that, get the best product that’s available to us,” Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy says.
Loading…
A Seabob rescue vehicle inside the garage of the Seaside Heights Volunteer Fire Department Ocean Rescue office in Seaside Heights, N.J. This vehicle propels rescue swimmers during water rescues. The department is looking into aerial drones equipped with flotation devices and unmanned water drones like the ones the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office uses to aid in water rescue.
Albert Yee for NPR
hide caption
Albert Yee for NPR
For them, that meant turning to DJI drones.
In the parking lot of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office in early August, Fennessy breaks down the costs of the equipment one of his deputies carries in his vehicle.
A DJI Matrice 300 RTK: $13,699
A set of two batteries: $1,400
A camera with infrared thermal imaging: $11,499
A (very fancy) remote controller: $1,600
A RESTUBE Automatic, a flotation device that can be dropped into water for rescues by the drone: $130.99
A payload release system: $1,099
That comes to a total of $29,427.99
Fennessy acknowledges this is a huge investment, but says the devices are well-used and well worth it — especially in the summertime, when Ocean County’s population nearly doubles. Major events constantly pose a policing challenge for the department, and they’ve found that drones have helped keep an eye on big crowds.
In July, the department used a drone to drop flotation devices to two swimmers in distress, and rescuers were able to bring them to shore.
Fennessy has become passionate about drones professionally and as a hobbyist. He’s done a lot of research, including into the American drone market. “All their stuff is good,” he says. “I’ve flown almost all of them. And I like them. I do. They make good products, but probably about three times the cost” of the DJI tools.
Beal, who says his organization is “agnostic” when it comes to what drones departments use, says he thinks Chinese-made drones are “light years ahead of what our American drones are able to do.”
For instance, Beal says DJI offers a drone with an impressive, high-resolution thermal camera that costs less than $10,000 right now. He says American-made drones have worse flight-time capabilities, thermal imaging and zoom. And still they usually cost between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on the type and the model.
NPR compared the cost of two drones with similar features. The DJI Matrice 400 drone retails for about $10,500. The American-made Inspired Flight IF800 TOMCAT is going for $21,000.
U.S. actions against DJI cite national security concerns
Ocean County is closely monitoring recent actions by the Trump administration that could limit options for updating its fleet in the future.
Agencies in other states like Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee have had to terminate their drone programs or plans for one after state lawmakers passed bans on agencies using foreign drones. Beal says some were left scrambling to find ways to pay for more expensive American alternatives when tight department budgets couldn’t cover the additional costs.
And there are more federal actions in the works.
The Federal Communications Commission is considering a new rule that would reclassify drones that use tech like thermal imaging as “military grade” — effectively banning many Chinese-made drones that have this integrated technology. Ocean County and other law enforcement use thermal imaging to assist in finding lost people or pets.
An aerial view of an Ocean County Sheriff’s Office DJI Matrice 300 RTK drone with a thermal-capable camera payload at the Ocean County Fairgrounds with the New Jersey Pinelands stretching into the distance. A propeller plane can be seen below and right of the drone.
Albert Yee for NPR
hide caption
Albert Yee for NPR
The FCC already bans the sale of some new models of foreign-made drones without the agency’s approval. Federal agencies and contractors cannot use certain foreign-made drones.
The FCC said in response to NPR’s questions, “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, America’s drone industry is booming with new investment, manufacturing, and jobs. At the FCC, we’re doing our part — working hand-in-glove across government and the private sector to make sure that U.S. drone and counter-drone supply chains are safe, secure, and reliable for all.”
The administration says that Chinese-made drones, and DJI drones specifically, pose a threat to national security — with, for instance, their potential for major attacks during large public gatherings, like the recent World Cup games, among other concerns.
DJI has pushed back against claims that its tech is shared with the Chinese government or that it accesses cameras and other footage collected by users, even hiring a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm to test the company’s products for vulnerabilities.
Adam Welsh, head of global policy at DJI said in a statement published in May, “These findings confirm what DJI has consistently maintained: our products are secure, our data practices are transparent” and the concerns that led to the company being banned “are not supported by technical evidence.”
There’s also the allegation that DJI uses forced labor from Uyghurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group facing human rights abuses under the Chinese government, to build its products. In 2024, the Customs and Border Protection blocked certain DJI drone imports under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. DJI has strongly denied these allegations, too.
Fennessy says he understands these concerns. “But to be honest, right now,” he says, “I want something that’s capable to go out there and do the job. And I have it.”
Beal says he’s seen no hard evidence that China is using these drones or its technology to spy on communities that are using them. He says he can understand the argument to bring more of the drone supply chain stateside.
But that’s a problem too, right now.
“We don’t have a lot of the minerals. We can’t produce the battery now. Even the American companies are using Chinese batteries,” he says. “We’re kind of limited to the resources that we have in-country or in an allied country, and sometimes that’s just not there.”
Who’s likely to absorb the costs? Taxpayers
The National Sheriffs’ Association, which represents more than 3,000 sheriffs, has called for the FCC to reconsider the proposed reclassification of certain drones as military grade. In a recent letter, the association wrote that it “recommends that the FCC confirm the adequacy of the domestic market for and -critical components for sheriffs and their colleagues in public safety to acquire drones to fulfill their various mission types, including drones that meet the definition of military grade.” In addition to thermal imaging, that classification includes capabilities such as the ability to spray aerosols and lidar, or laser-based sensors.
The NSA recommends that otherwise the FCC add an exemption for state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies to continue to purchase and operate this equipment until the domestic market is built up.
An Ocean County Sheriff’s Office drone lifts off at the Ocean County Fairgrounds on Sept. 4 as Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Fennessy (left) and Officer Adam Wright (at right, with the controller) stand near a department SUV.
Albert Yee for NPR
hide caption
Albert Yee for NPR
Keith Miao, the CEO and founder of Birdstop, a Detroit-based manufacturer of autonomous drone technology, says China “hands down” dominated what he calls “the first era” of drone technology. He says American manufacturers have the potential to “define the next era of enterprise and government use of drone technology.”
To Miao, the federal government’s latest moves are an acknowledgment that this is a critical technology that, if not manufactured at home, could be a serious problem down the road.
“I think this is going to give American manufacturers an opportunity to rethink … and build out drone manufacturing,” Miao says. “We are going all in on manufacturing drones in America and building up the supply chains to do that long term. And so we obviously believe it can be done.”
There are several federal and state grants that law enforcement can use to buy American-made drones. But they are competitive.
Fennessy hopes more federal funding comes through, especially if the government eventually wants them to park their DJI drones for good.
“If the federal government wants to say, hey, listen, you can’t fly your DJI drone anymore, well, that’s cool. Um, how am I going to afford to buy the drones that you want me to fly? The taxpayers of Ocean County are going to absorb that,” he says. “The funding’s got to be there.”
