New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called on President Joe Biden for more federal resources to respond to the drones that have been swarming Garden State skies for the past month.
"While I am sincerely grateful for your administration's leadership in addressing this concerning issue, it has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity," the Democrat governor wrote in a letter to the president on Thursday.
"New Jersey residents deserve more concrete information about these UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] sightings and what is causing them," he said. "The continued reporting of UAS activity has raised more questions than answers and prompted an outcropping of conspiracy theories on social media and other online platforms."
Current laws limit the extent to which local and state officials can respond to the situation, which is why Murphy made the appeal to the White House for additional assistance.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday that there is no evidence that the drones pose a public safety or national security threat but added that the federal government is working to learn more about them.
"We haven't seen any indication thus far that there's a public safety risk," Kirby said, according to The Hill.
The Department of Defense also said there has been no evidence that the drones are "the work of an adversary" or have been deployed by a foreign entity.
Murphy has said that the FBI is working with state officials to discover where the drones are coming from and who is operating them.
In the letter, Murphy said that Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., "have bipartisan legislation — 'Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2023' — that would help accomplish these goals."
Murphy also sent a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday asking them to "empower state and local law enforcement entities with the ability to use advanced detection and mitigation technology."
Meanwhile, Belleville Mayor Michael Melham said Friday he has directed local officials to wear hazmat suits and call the bomb squad if any of the drones fall from the sky in his municipality.
"First of all, if there is a downed drone in our vicinity, we are immediately to call the bomb squad of our county," Melham said during an appearance on Fox News' "The Faulkner Focus."
"And second, our fire department has been instructed to make sure they wear hazmat suits," he added.
Belleville would treat a downed drone like a homeland security attack, Melham said, "because they are not sure if there's a payload or not."
The mayor also said that he has instructed residents not to shoot the drones down despite the widespread anxiety they have caused.
"We're being advised to tell residents not to shoot them down," he said.
In Hillsborough, an unidentified resident called police at 8:34 p.m. ET saying a drone went down in a nearby field outside of a Lowe's, according to the Daily Mail.
The outlet reported that police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel could be seen in a nearby parking lot at 7:30 a.m. Friday morning to begin the search for the aircraft.
The Somerset County Hazmat Team reportedly performed a search of the area on foot, which turned up nothing, and the Police Aviation Unit also searched, both on foot and in the air, and came up empty.
The Mail reported that the search was called off at 12:10 p.m. after no drone had been found.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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