DroneShield’s products were utilized by the Texas State Department of Public Safety, the Denton County Sheriff, the Fort Worth Police Department, the Texas Forest Service, and the Texas Rangers for the protection of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the Texas Motor Speedway.
These high profile sporting events bring out the looky-loos who might be quite tempted to use their drone to capture some video footage of cars going 200+ miles per hour. Drone hobbyist have been associated with flying drones where they shouldn’t, and have even had some incidents at sporting events. Last year, a drone pilot inadvertently flew his drone into the stands at Petco Park during a MLB game. Drones are a danger to both the fans and the drivers of stock cars.
Monitoring of drone activity at high profile mass events has become an important component of event management, The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is the sport's highest level of professional competition. According to DroneShield press release, this is the “first known live operational use” of all three of their products – DroneSentinel, DroneSentry and DroneGun – by U.S. law enforcement.
Unlike other countries, U.S. state and local law enforcements are not allowed to use products like the DroneGun. It is unclear if state and local enforcements were working with federal agencies or if state and local police obtained authorization under some kind of supervisory arrangement with federal agencies.
