Some U.S. lawmakers are considering outlawing the sale of a very popular brand of Chinese-manufactured drones. The TMJ4 Lighthouse team goes in-depth to learn more about why a drone ban is being proposed and the impact this type of ban would have on local law enforcement agencies and small businesses.
Jon Elliot has made a career out of flying his drones. He owns a small business called MKE Drones.
"Largely I serve commercial clients whether that's industrial, commercial real estate, development, there's a lot of construction companies that use me," he said.
Watch: Local impacts of proposed drone ban
Elliot said DJI drones are the most affordable and the most user-friendly.
"There are US-made drones out there but usually their price points are significantly higher and even if they do have a higher price point, you don't get the same either flight capability or image quality," he said.
DJI drones are also what TMJ4 News uses as a tool to tell stories.
For months, there have been ongoing calls from lawmakers to outlaw DJI drone sales in the United States. To learn more about why, TMJ4's Ryan Jenkins went to speak with an expert at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE).
EHF24741 Countering CCP Drones and Supporting Drones for Law Enforcement Act (1) by TMJ4 News on Scribd
TMJ4's Ryan Jenkins: "Why are lawmakers concerned about these Chinese-made drones? What is the threat?"
Derek Riley, Computer Science Program Director at MSOE: "The threat is really around information. These drones are flown all over the country. They're flown sometimes in sensitive areas and they're collecting a lot of potentially sensitive information."
Riley compares the proposed ban on these drones to the government bans on the popular social media app TikTok, which recently made headlines.
"All of that information doesn't belong to the person collecting it, per se. It could be sent back to the parent company DJI and that's a big concern; where is the information going?" said Riley.
Last month, an act to ban the sale of DJI drones passed the U.S. House of Representatives but was ultimately left off of the Senate National Defense Authorization Act.
Now, at least two senators have re-introduced another act that would ban DJI drones. The new bill will be considered in September.
If a full DJI ban were to be enacted, Jon Elliot said his business would be hard hit.
"It basically means all of this money that we have tied up in drones – and I have 4 or 5 DJI drones, they're going to be shelved," Elliot said.
The impact of a possible DJI Drone ban would be felt beyond small businesses. Many first responders would have to make changes too.
"If it were banned, we'd have to go ahead and find another option to replace it," said Sgt. David Vitek of the Greenfield Police Department. "They've definitely made it more effective for us. We've had multiple finds of either missing people or suspects that we might not have otherwise found or we found them a lot quicker which makes the community safer."
Local perspectives, as technology and information security are considered and debated by policymakers.
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