The police and the State Border Guard (SBG) will be able to use signal jammers to combat illegal drones - this is provided for in the amendments to the Electronic Communications Law, which have been submitted for consideration by parliamentary committees, reports LETA.
The amendments will grant the State Police and the Border Guard the right to temporarily use special radio equipment to suppress unwanted radio communications in emergency and urgent situations when public order, safety, critical and public infrastructure are at risk.
Currently, neither the State Police nor the Border Guard has the legal authority to use special radio equipment - drone signal jammers - for forced landing, destruction, or neutralization of drones. Such rights are only held by state security agencies and the National Armed Forces.
In practice, the State Police usually seeks support from the Military Police, relying on a cooperation agreement in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle management to ensure public order and safety at mass events, during operational actions, and when escorting motorcades during visits by high-ranking officials from Latvia and foreign countries, as well as in other cases to prevent drone flights that pose a threat.
Considering that such activities often last for extended periods, and the State Police cannot independently use the equipment for countering drones that is at the disposal of the Military Police, this may affect the timely execution of the Military Police's official duties.
The Ministry of the Interior (MoI) indicates that in recent years, drone technologies have rapidly developed, facilitating their use in both the public and private sectors, including for illegal purposes.
The State Police monitors drone flights in their daily operations using technical means - receiving devices that allow for the recording of flight routes and the location of operators. For example, from 2022 to the present, more than 2,100 violations related to the use of drones have been recorded. More than half of these were recorded by the police, and about 10% of the violations are considered particularly serious and pose a threat to public space.
When a drone is detected in a prohibited airspace or near critical infrastructure facilities, it is generally impossible to determine whether the flight was malicious, due to negligence, a pilot error, or ignorance of the restrictions. Given the geopolitical situation, law enforcement agencies consider such flights potentially threatening, notes the MoI.
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