well let me bring in New Jersey Democratic Congressman Josh gottheimer a member of the House intelligence committee and he will be part of the folks who receive that drone briefing he is also a candidate for New Jersey governor it's good to see you Congressman hey thanks for having me you heard the official message from John Kirby at the White House the police commissioner in New York City this is usual activity that the only thing that's really gone up is the number of people calling in about it there's always been a lot of drones up there
uh is that ultimately what's happening here well listen the first thing I've learned is you don't insult people by telling them they're not seeing what they're seeing with their own eyes I've heard from so many of my constituents that who are sending me pictures who are seeing things um we set up a a a website where people can actually send in their information that I can pass along to the intelligence committee and to the FBI and DHS because what I'm hearing pretty clearly people is we're seeing things but you're not giving us any straight answers
and so far it's been drip drip drip from the FBI from Homeland Security from the FAA and what I've called for is let's go out there and let's give folks a proper public briefing explain to people what what we think is out there what's going on and make sure that everyone is safe and what I've gotten from the briefings also is I don't feel there's any imminent threat to Public Safety but not a lot of great answers on What are people actually seeing how we making sure that these drones aren't going over you've luned unauthorized
drones going over reservoirs or airports or military bases or over their home collecting information that's the kind of stuff I want to make sure we get the answers to for the public and of course give local law enforcemen who do an incredible job every day the tools they need to be able to monitor the skies so it's not the Wild West in Jersey a drone activity so they can know what's out there and if they need to if a drone a large drone is threatening something like a base like like a reservoir that or a
law enforcement center that we can do something about it and get those drones out of the sky safely so we didn't play this part of it but the police commissioner at least has answered the question you say hasn't been answered what are these things here's what she said she said of the 2,000 drone flights a week that's typical over New York City granted they're seeing planes they're seeing helicopters in some cases they're seeing planets in some cases they're seeing commercially available drones and Reporting it what are the specific questions I'm sure that you have that
you want to ask today and that you want to ask on behalf of your constituents cuz I'm guessing your phones have been ringing off the hook they have of course and yeah listen I think the question we've got to get an answer to Is what are people seeing yes some of them may be manned aircraft some of them may be people putting up their own drones but you're talking about a lot of sightings out there right more than a thousand I I I'm hearing scores every day from the people that I represent in northern Jersey
and I'm not just saying to them and insulting saying listen you're seeing nothing because a lot of I spoke to law enforcement officer who saw something a few hundred feet in the uh in the air a larger drone with his own eyes so the bottom line is where these coming from and and making sure they're not a threat and so far based on the briefings I've received I don't think there's any imminent threat to Public Safety but you still have a lot of questions that need to be answered and the public deserves that public briefing
and those are the kind of questions I plan to ask with force on the intelligence committee where I sit in a few minutes and un making sure there's no threats and continuing to monitor that but the bottom line is I will keep pressing for more answers for the public in a public way right public briefings from the responsible departments the FBI home land security what steps are we taking to make sure we protect our critical infrastructure our airports and and our bases going forward and giving law enforcement local law enforcement the tools they need to
coordinate with the federal government to make sure also they can monitor going forward you just can't have it everyone flying and be the wild west up there right there's one thing if it's a recreational thing in your in your backyard something you get for the holidays it's a whole another thing if you're flying up on authorized unwanted drones that are larger ahead and not knowing what they are and the bottom line is people deserve answers I've got Le bipartisan legislation to give local law enforcement the tools they need to be able to respond and those
are the kind of steps I think we should be taking right away yeah because the president I'm sure you know is calling for a bipartisan commission to take a look at this at the start of the next year do you think that's too late do you think that there is enough hubub over this that maybe Congress will take a serious look at this even before you break I mean I hope you know I've called for i' introducing legislation to ask them to immediately brief at the federal level right so what do I think I think
we should act now you said commission is good too longer term we should be thinking about these things especially as there more drones being used for commercial use and delivery and other things right monitoring for as they are right now for Public Safety uh Public Safety uh measures at large events those are all good things but those are authorized use of drones and we know they're in the air the key is getting to the bottom of any unauthorized use and making sure that we understand and that law enforcement has the tools to respond again stopping
kind of any kind of wild west of Jersey or in the country getting to the bottom of this but giving people information it's that transparency and consistency that people deserve and right now it's drip drip drip right the Secretary of Homeland Security said which I'm very happy he did that people are seeing drones right instead of saying you're not seeing anything here right he admitted to that but now we got to understand where are they all coming from why the surge what kind of stuff's out there and just giving people answers I think that'll make
everybody feel better once they have clear answers from the government
