January 8, 2020 Drone action plan for today.

Our elected leaders at the county and state level are aware of the drone issue and I saw an article yesterday that shows Senator Deb Fisher has asked FAA directly for an explanation. I know CO elected officials have made the same request. Your local and state officials are as invested in finding who is responsible for these drones as you and I are.

CO has excellent video footage of the drones when they were out in CO. We have great data on the drones in our area. I won’t elaborate as I suspect that the company running these are monitoring public discussions on social media. We all want information, but do not be chasing the drones.

These drones are doing nothing but flying around. So why the big secret? Why do new stores put up paper in the windows so we can’t see what they are doing inside until the grand opening? They just don’t want us to know and as a drone expert pointed out by rules and regulations related to drone flight, they are not required too.

Now, if I was the CEO, seeing the negative impact it is having on a community I would be rethinking that idea as I know for one, that when it comes out who is behind this, I am not going to be involved in their product. It may be the best, but the tactic and position of secrecy they are taking is not helping any of us.

Their silence is requiring us, as intelligent human beings, to fill in the void of information with “what if”. That can make us uncomfortable. All of us, including me. Trying to find a solution, an answer. I had someone tell me not my circus, not my monkeys yesterday when I asked for their input. He is not part of our system in Clay County. Fine, his choice. People are all over the map on this. Those working this proactively, have the same lack of information we have and are building leads based on the information law enforcement and emergency managers are documenting.

I did step out of my lane today and suggested an investigative tactic that I as your emergency manager would like to see them utilize. I am consulting with many levels on our behalf, sharing our concerns, and working for answers.

Next steps:

The local, state, and federal task force is working in CO and NE. They are the lead agency on this I investigation and operation. We have been asked at the local level to move past the drones flying in our county, to tangible data.

1. Official observers are out and watching for drones and tracking their activity. We have an identified group working as a network here in Clay County and they are doing a great job. They share what they are seeing with me and we work together for this project. The seeing drones in the air is covered by the observation team.

2. New information came in last night associated with a helicopter landing in Harvard and activity in the Harvard area. No injuries, nothing out of what we have been seeing.

a. People did report on FB to me that they saw contrails in the sky behind the drones.

b. Flying in multiples close to town was new.

c. The helicopter was new and important and was reported.

3. You can call our Dispatch Center with unusual activity associated with the drones.

a. Keep in mind, our dispatch center is manned by one staff member.

b. When the drones arrived last night, our dispatcher was dealing with multiple calls about the drones, and other regular activity in the county.

c. When the helicopter landed, she was dealing with more 911 calls, officers out on contacts, and the drones.

d. She had to cook and serve dinner to the prisoners being housed in the CC jail.

e. We had a report of a drone go down in southeast Clay County. She had to notify us and several law enforcement officers and myself went to investigate. It was gone before we got there. At that same time a fire outside of a residence in Clay Center came in via 911. CC Fire responded and resolved that issue quickly. At the time this is going on as well officers were out with a male who was armed with a concealed handgun. And one of their radios stopped working and she could not raise him.

4. Our non-emergency line to CC Dispatch is 402-762-3928.

a. Call if you see a drone on the ground.

b. Call if you see something that I have not talked about on FB the last few days.

i. The helicopter is a good example.

c. If you get video of the craft, not the flashing lights way up in the sky, but flying low enough that you see the aircraft, shape, color and configuration of it.

d. If common sense tells you this is something different and we need to know.

5. After participating in major cases before you follow up on every lead. Unnecessary leads confuse the view of the case and take extra time and staff to try and prove them, to find out they were an errant report. Here is how we can edit ourselves. Using common sense is a good marker. They know we have drones in our county. Do I need to call? Nope!

6. The State Patrol Tweeted out this site that you can go to, so you can file a direct report with them. The issue with that is, once it is with them, they can not share it back to us. If we don’t know locally, we can not add the pieces of the puzzle together to keep you updated on what is occurring. That piece you share with that site, may be the one I am needing to connect it all. I send all your reports to them in my reports. We keep our records of what we do and send them multiple updates daily. I was just notified that the agency who pushed out the web site should not have done that, as we were told yesterday. It is for official use only. My apologies. When I saw it on Twitter and on news stations I figured I had missed a memo. Someone else missed the memo of not sharing it.