FAA’s Expansive Chicago Drone Ban Raises Questions Over Security and Civil Liberties

FAA issues expansive Chicago TFR to protect federal officers

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

The FAA has established an unusually extensive and prolonged temporary flight restriction (TFR) for drones operating over downtown Chicago, at a time when federal law enforcement agents are ramping up immigration raids throughout the city.

Citing “special security reasons” the agency issued the TFR on October 1. The restrictions, which went into effect immediately, are not scheduled to expire until October 12.

The TFR, which covers a large segment of the Chicago’s central business district, has a radius of 15 nautical miles, and covers the airspace from the surface up to and including 400 above ground level. No UAS operations are allowed within the area covered by the TRF, with the following exceptions:

• Operations in direct support of an active national defense, homeland security, law enforcement, firefighting, search and rescue or disaster response mission;
• Operations in support of event operations;
• Commercial UAS operations with a valid statement of work;

In order to receive approval to fly commercial within the TFR area, UAS operators must be in possession of an approved special governmental interest (SGI) airspace waiver and comply with all other applicable federal aviation regulations.

The TFR warns that UAS operators who do not comply with the applicable airspace restrictions are subject to severe penalties. “The Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) may take security action that results in the interference, disruption, seizure, damaging or destruction of unmanned aircraft deemed to pose a credible safety or security threat.”

However, despite that threat, the DHS and DOJ recently lost the legal authority to disable drones in flight when Congress failed to pass a continuing resolution that would have reauthorized that authority. The failure of Congress to pass the CR also subsequently led to a government shutdown.

Although the FAA did not provide a detailed reason for issuing the TFR, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a part of DHR, said in a statement that it had requested the drone restrictions, “due to a credible threat of small, unmanned aircraft systems being used against law enforcement during Midway Blitz.” Midway Blitz is the codename for the department’s controversial policy of conducting massive immigration raids in the Chicago area.

While TFRs are routinely issued to restrict the use of the airspace surrounding major events, such as the Superbowl or presidential visits, drone operators and civil liberties advocates have questioned the appropriateness of issuing such a sweeping TFR in support of a law enforcement operation. They’ve cited the extent of the physical area of the TFR, its duration and the lack of advance notice given to UAV pilots.

Troy Walsh, owner of Drone Media Chicago, an aerial video and photography company, said the TRF was “unprecedented” in its reach.

“As commercial pilots and even hobbyists it’s our responsibility to be aware of what airspace we’re flying in and if there are temporary flight restrictions,” he said in an interview.

Commercial drone operators are used to having the FAA issue TFRs in advance of big Major League Baseball games or special events such as the Chicago Marathon. However, Walsh said those restrictions usually are publicized well in advance of the event and are of relatively short durations. This allows the operators to inform their clients of the constraints the operator is facing and to plan their schedules around the TFR.

“So, this one is unique in the sense where pretty much we weren’t really given any notice,” he said.

“Typically, a TFR will go into place for possibly a couple of hours during the day. You might get another TFR the following day but usually the TFR will be relieved after the event is concluded,” he said. “And then once it (the current TFR) went into effect, it was continuous. So, a 24-hour TFR for a length of 12 days. That’s unprecedented.”

The size of the area under the TFR, about 935 square miles, is also unusual, Walsh said. A typical TFR will be issued for a radius of about three nautical miles, which is about three and a half standard miles, he said. “This one is 15 nautical miles. We only really see those for pretty rare events, like if the president is in town or if there’s special VIP movement in the area.”

Walsh said he expects that the TFR will have a significant impact on drone-oriented businesses such as his. “TFRs are usually an inconvenience. I’d say this is more of a direct, sustainable impact for the next couple of weeks, because if you’re using drones for a commercial purpose, it’s the same as your storefront being closed for almost two weeks.”

Other critics pointed to the potential for federal authorities to misuse the expansive TRF to ground drones that might otherwise be used to report on their activities.

In a post on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website, Jay Stanley, an ACLU senior policy analyst questioned the government’s rationale for imposing restrictions on virtually all non-governmental drone flights in the region. While DHS contends that it sought the TFR to safeguard its own drone operations, Stanley said he is especially concerned that the federal law enforcement agencies might instead use the TFR as a pretext to shield their operations from public scrutiny.

“Law enforcement can use its own aerial operations as a stratagem to prevent reporters (including private individuals acting as reporters) from recording newsworthy public gatherings,” he wrote. “We can’t give government the power to block drone photography of newsworthy events simply by claiming a need to fly their own aircraft in an area or claiming the existence of vague ‘security threats.’”

Read more:

• ACLU Discusses Concerns Over Police Drone Surveillance, Drone Delivery: DRONELIFE Exclusive
• ACLU Calls for Strict Limits on Police Drones. Skyfire Consulting Asked Them Why.

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.