Mystery Drone Sightings On Long Island: County Police Departments Working With Feds

LONG ISLAND, NY — Long Island's largest police departments in Nassau and Suffolk are working with state and federal law enforcement in the wake of mystery drone sightings in the region, officials say.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday said that there will be federal monitoring of drones in New York.

In a joint statement by County Executive Ed Romaine and police brass, officials said that "in light of the recent drone sightings throughout the east coast," officials "are working closely together along with our state and federal law enforcement partners to monitor the situation in real-time."

On Friday, a Suffolk police spokesperson said there were 16 spotted in the county, the same day there were reports in New York City and Connecticut.

Updated numbers were not provided on Monday.

A police spokesperson previously told Patch that the department was not tracking the phenomenon.

When asked if the department has begun tracking them on Monday, and how many have been reported since Thursday, as well as for locations, and if any were located in sensitive areas, a department spokesperson referred Patch to the joint statement.

In Nassau, there were 55 reports of drone sightings in the county since Friday, bringing the total since Nov. 1 to 79, a police spokesperson said Monday.

But it is not uncommon for residents to report drone sightings to the police department, with those reports "increased significantly over the past few days due to public awareness of the activity in New Jersey," the spokesperson said.

Though, in the county, the reports have been of objects similar to personally owned recreational drones, and nothing like what is being reported in New Jersey.

The department will continue to monitor the reporting and as always we are communicating with our partners in federal, state and local law enforcement, the spokesperson said.

Drone sightings have become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent weeks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

And like Long Island, there is still is no explanation for the uptick, whether they are nefarious in nature, prompted by good weather, or just that residents are more focused on seeing them than usual due to the reports coming out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Federal officials have reportedly said they do not believe the sightings to be a threat to public safety and that most of them are likely to be manned aircraft.

Morris County in New Jersey has been a hotspot for drone sightings since they first started appearing around Nov. 18. But almost four weeks later, state and federal officials have shared little about the origin or purpose of the nighttime visitors.

New Jersey state police have reports of between four and 180 sightings per night, according to officials.

Drones were also spotted throughout the greater Philadelphia area on Thursday, perhaps the most widespread night yet of the unexplained sightings in the local area.

There had only been scattered and intermittent reports around Philadelphia and the five county suburban area until Thursday night.

This story will be updated. Check back later.