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Home > Open Access Journals > JSS > Vol. 18 > No. 3 (2025)

 

Author Biography

Nathan P. Jones is an Associate Professor of Security Studies in the college of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University. He is the author of Georgetown University Press’s Mexico’s Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction (2016). His areas of interest include organized crime violence in Mexico, drug trafficking organizations, social network analysis, border security, and the political economy of homeland security. Dr. Jones is also an Associate Editor and Senior Fellow with the Small Wars Journal–El Centro, a Rice University Baker Institute Drug Policy and US-Mexico Center non-resident scholar, and the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Strategic Security and International Journal of Police Science. Prior to joining the Sam Houston State University Security Studies Department, Dr. Jones was the Alfred C. Glassell III Postdoctoral Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for public policy, where his research focused on drug violence in Mexico.

Dr. John P. Sullivan was a career police officer, now retired. Throughout his career he has specialized in emergency operations, terrorism, and intelligence. He is an Instructor in the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) at the University of Southern California, Senior El Centro Fellow at Small Wars Journal, and Contributing Editor at Homeland Security Today. He served as a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, where he has served as a watch commander, operations lieutenant, headquarters operations lieutenant, service area lieutenant, tactical planning lieutenant, and in command and staff roles for several major national special security events and disasters. Sullivan received a lifetime achievement award from the National Fusion Center Association in November 2018 for his contributions to the national network of intelligence fusion centers. He has a PhD from the Open University of Catalonia, an MA in urban affairs and policy analysis from the New School for Social Research, and a BA in Government from the College of William & Mary.

George W. Davis Jr. specializes in providing technology solutions to the defense and public safety sectors. He is a specialist in geospatial Information Systems and Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT). After the 9/11 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center he supported the Emergency Mapping and Data Center (EMDC), mapping the area around Ground Zero as well as most of Manhattan south of Canal Street. He served as Geospatial Information Coordinator for the New York Metro Chapter of Infragard. He has worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), New York Police Department (NYPD), FBI, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, and the Business Emergency Operations Center (BEOC) Alliance in New Jersey. Projects included mapping and aerial photography for several national and international disasters (Hurricanes: Charley, Katrina, Rita, Ike and Hugo), the Haiti Earthquake and the Sri Lanka Tsunami, using LIDAR, 3D Modeling software, Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones), Thermal Imaging, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), GPS, and other remote sensing technologies.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.18.3.2410

Subject Area Keywords

Asymmetric warfare, Global trends and risks, Homeland security, Terrorism / counterterrorism, Threat assessment

Abstract

This article overviews the issue of drone threats to stadiums and public venues. It provides emergency managers and those defending this critical infrastructure with an overview, operational considerations, and a discussion of the technical implementation for defending these sites from drone threats through detection. It provides a discussion of the current limitations of countermeasures and legal frameworks relevant to drones. Throughout, this article uses real drone detection data from the Astroworld concert incident (November 2021) as a notional case study to illustrate the type of drone detection data emergency managers will contend with and what can be gleaned from it. The article includes a discussion of future threats like swarming and conclusions.

Disclaimer

The technologies and platforms discussed here are only examples of the types of drone detection, counter-drone and real time data integration tools useful for securing US critical infrastructure related to stadiums and mass gatherings. Nothing in this article should be construed as an endorsement of a particular brand or firm.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Institute for Homeland Security for financial support to conduct the research and Airsight for data access related to the Astroworld Houston Concert event. The authors would like to thank the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Center of Excellence & Innovation Center (LSUASC) Director Michael J. Sanders and staff including Matthew Wesson, Tom Frierson, and others for providing a tour of facilities and follow up interviews.

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