New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday reiterated that mysterious drone sightings don’t pose a public threat, after 21 mayors and other elected officials called for more action.
“This is something we’re taking deadly seriously,” he said at an unrelated bill-signing event in Princeton. “I don’t blame people for being frustrated.”
His comment came after lawmakers and mayors in New Jersey demanded a more “proactive” response from Murphy and federal officials as drones continued to clutter the Garden State’s skies.
“Either higher level officials know what’s going on and are not concerned, or they are negligent for not apprehending and identifying one of these drones,” the nearly two dozen Morris County mayors told Murphy in a letter sent this weekend, obtained by the Bergen Record. “We strongly request a proactive approach be taken on the half of the residents of New Jersey and Morris County. These drones have to land at some point somewhere, and these offices need to follow them and identify where they are going and who owns them and is operating them.”
Republican state Sen. Doug Steinhardt on Friday called for a bipartisan panel to look into the issue.
“The recurring issue of unidentified drones in areas of critical military and infrastructure security, over private homes, under the cloak of darkness and at all hours of the night have raised concerns among many including residents in the 23rd legislative district,” he said in a statement. “The incomplete answers and evasive assurances given by the governor and others in authority positions have raised more questions than they have answered.”
Assembly members John DiMaio and Erik Peterson echoed the sentiments in their own letter to Murphy.
The drones were first spotted in mid-November hovering over mid- and northern New Jersey, sometimes in clusters as large as eight. Most of them are bigger than those normally used by hobbyists. They have been causing consternation for their proximity to a military base and President-Elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course. They may be the same drones that blocked a medevac helicopter from rescuing someone injured in a car accident just before Thanksgiving. The FBI and other agencies are investigating.
Murphy had said Friday that his office was “actively monitoring the situation” in conjunction with federal and law enforcement officials, but that didn’t cut it for creeped-out constituents.
“While the benefits of drone technology are widely recognized when used responsibly and transparently, the lack of information and clarity regarding these operations has caused fear and frustration among our constituents,” the mayors wrote in their letter. “Despite inquiries made to relevant authorities, we have yet to receive satisfactory answers about the purpose, operators, or safety protocols governing these flights.”
___
© 2024 New York Daily News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC