Darien Police Urge Residents To Report Suspicious Drone Activity

DARIEN, CT — With mysterious drone sightings continuing to occur around Connecticut and the region, Darien police are urging residents to report suspicious activity.

Residents can submit details through the state's suspicious activity reporting form or the CT Safe mobile app, police said in an Instagram post this week.

When submitting a report, police said it's important to document details like the date and time of the sighting, location, description of the sighing (sounds, color of lights) and direction and duration of the flight path. Users can also upload photos.

For immediate safety concerns, residents can call the Darien Police Department's non-emergency number at 203-662-5300, or 911 in emergencies.

According to Darien Police Sgt. Mauricio Vigil as of Thursday afternoon, the department had only received one reported phone call of a drone sighting in town on Dec. 13 at 5:20 p.m.

Drones and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) began to appear in large numbers across New Jersey about a month ago and they've since been seen in other states along the East Coast.

Locally, drone sightings have been reported in Fairfield, Greenwich and Stamford, and other parts of Connecticut in recent days, as well as nearby Westchester County.

In a joint statement released this week, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said they've received some 5,000 tips about the mysterious aircraft and followed up on more than 100 leads with advanced detection technologies and trained observers.

"Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones," the agencies said. "We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast."

The FBI and Homeland Security did not explain why, if the sightings are just regular private and commercial drones and planes, there has been such a marked increase in the sightings.

The federal agencies said they still "recognize the concern" the public has expressed regarding the drones, and urged Congress to pass "counter-UAS (unmanned aircraft systems)" legislation immediately. They advised new legislation to "extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge."

Connecticut state Sen. Tony Hwang has also requested the federal government give the states authority to deal with the drones directly, calling them a national security and public safety risk.

"It's unacceptable," Hwang said during a news conference on Monday. "The fact that we've had sightings last Thursday, and that weeks have gone by since sightings in New York and New Jersey, but we have not gotten an explanation as to who and what these drones are. It's a breakdown of transparency, trusted communications and answers."

— Justin Heinze and Alfred Branch, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.