Researching and Reporting Drone Sightings
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Drones have caused quite a buzz in mid-Atlantic states, and this past week they became a topic of interest in King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties.
Here in Virginia, the response to these sightings is handled by the Virginia Fusion Center in Richmond.
Fusion centers, according to information on the Virginia Fusion Center website, were established after 9/11 and are a “a collaborative effort of state and federal agencies working in conjunction with local partners to share resources, expertise, and/or information to better identify, detect, prevent, and respond to terrorist and criminal activity utilizing an all crimes/all hazards approach.”
The Fusion Center is operated by the Virginia State Police, but it’s directed by the governor, per state code.
Major Elizabeth Scott of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said that each time it receives a drone sighting it reports that information to the “Virginia Fusion Center, [which] has sent a form to be filled out every time a drone sighting is called in,” she told the Advance. The Sheriff’s office then faxes the form back to the Fusion Center.
The Advance asked Sergeant Brent Coffey, public information officer for Virginia State Police Division II — Culpeper, if he had any updates on drones over Virginia, or on comments delivered yesterday by National Security adviser John Kirby, who reported that the drone sightings presented no risk to public safety.
“We’ve done the detection, then the analysis,” he told Bret Baier on FOX News, and “[w]e’ve corroborated the sightings. And in every case that we have examined to date, we have seen nothing, nothing that indicates a public safety risk.”
Coffey said they are making “no comments on drones right now,” but that he will be sharing information as it becomes available from Richmond.
Stay with the Advance as we continue to track this story.
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