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The FBI says that it has from people flying near World Cup games, raising serious questions about fairness and due process, the police corruption that asset forfeiture laws encourage, and the future of drones as an authoritarian technology reserved for government agencies and corporations and unavailable to ordinary people.

Of course we don鈥檛 know if the FBI's claim (which includes seizures by the FBI 鈥渁nd our DHS partners鈥�) is accurate. What we do know is that drone seizures appear to be emerging as an unaccountable government power that is being exercised more regularly.

It鈥檚 easy to imagine that 鈥減olice seized a drone鈥� means they removed it from the sky due to a violation, and then gave it back. But the law says that any drone that is seized 鈥渋s to the United States鈥� or, where state and local law enforcement seize aircraft, are 鈥渟ubject to forfeiture under the laws of the agency's jurisdiction.鈥� That means that seizures can be carried out in the sense of, 鈥渢his drone is now ours.鈥� We don鈥檛 know how many if any FBI-seized drones are being returned to their owners.

These seizures raise many other questions, too, including:

• Under what circumstances has the FBI been seizing people鈥檚 drones? For any violation? Some violations? How much discretion is involved?
• Has the agency been differentiating between flights that appear to be intentionally disruptive, such as an attempted flight over a stadium, versus flights where a violation is accidental or results from ignorance or misunderstanding about the rules?
• What happens when a drone seizure is unfair (鈥淵ou say you鈥檙e outside the no-drone zone? Well I say you鈥檙e inside it.鈥�) Are there procedures by which a drone owner can contest the seizure of their drone, other than filing a federal lawsuit?
• What is done with seized drones? Are they sold with proceeds going into the FBI鈥檚 budget as with other ?
• What is the total value of drones that the FBI has seized?
• Is the agency seizing expensive $20,000 drones but not bothering with $300 consumer models, as we have seen with some agencies implementing ?
• Has the FBI destroyed any drones (which equally deprives people of their property without due process)?

How can law enforcement just take people鈥檚 drones?
If you ride a bicycle or drive a car somewhere you鈥檙e not supposed to be, the government doesn鈥檛 get to seize and keep your bike or your car, so why can they do that with respect to drones? Obviously if a drone is somewhere it鈥檚 not supposed to be, such as within the area of a temporary flight restriction (TFR) around a major sporting event, then it makes sense that law enforcement should be able to act. But why should they be able to take your property?

The reason they can is that agencies have been pushing for such a power, which they already exercise in other areas through American law enforcement鈥檚 and of . They want that power because the proceeds from seizures go right into their budgets. Under these War-on-Drugs laws, can people鈥檚 cars, cash, and other belongings without proof of wrongdoing, bending law enforcement officers away from their role as disinterested enforcers of the law and giving them a 鈥減rofit motive鈥� to claim that someone is in violation when they are actually not. It gives them an incentive to settle close calls, small technical violations, or ambiguous situations in favor of seizure, and generally to engage in unjustified over-enforcement. The ongoing scandal over these patently unjust laws and practices gives fuel to that the police are 鈥渏ust another gang.鈥�

With drones, the problem started in 2018 when Congress first gave DHS and DOJ the power to destroy or seize drones. As the 红杏视频 at the time, the bill failed to 鈥渕andate a prior or after-the-fact review to ensure that DOJ and DHS appropriately exercised their authority,鈥� including 鈥渁ny independent determination from a judge that an individual did something wrong or such seizure was necessary to prevent harm.鈥�

In 2022 the Biden administration in 2022 a that represented essentially a security- wish-list of counter-drone authorities unbalanced by civil liberties protections. That bill languished until December 2025, when the Trump Administration pushed through echoing the Biden proposal by attaching it to a must-pass Defense Department funding measure. At the end of the day law enforcement got their wish and forfeiture powers are now part of the law.

Smoothing the path to seizure by local authorities as well
Although the FBI appears to have been doing most of the World Cup drone seizing, the government is also extending seizure authority to state and local law enforcement. Localities are only authorized under the to seize drones where action is 鈥渘ecessary to mitigate a credible threat.鈥� However, the DOJ and DHS say in interim final implementing regulations that the state and local seizure power 鈥渁pplies to the physical taking of possession of an unmanned aircraft that .鈥� Bizarrely, in short, if a police officer claims your former flight was a 鈥渃redible threat鈥� (a very subjective term), then they can seize your drone even though you鈥檙e done flying, at which point it鈥檚 hard to see how a drone could pose a threat.

Before any state or local officer can act to mitigate a drone threat, they have to undergo an FBI training course, after which they receive a 鈥溾�� authorizing them to take various actions against drones posing credible threats, and they have to coordinate their actions with the federal government. , DOJ and DHS say, when state or local police want to seize a drone 鈥� then there鈥檚 no need for police to bother with any of this certification or coordination. Apparently the government doesn鈥檛 want any friction slowing down its drone seizures.

Unlike state and local police, DHS and the DOJ a credible threat to seize a drone; they can also do so merely 鈥渢o enforce the law.鈥� Again, outside of the War on Drugs, police enforcing rules in other areas doesn鈥檛 generally do so by confiscating property.

Even careful operators can be trapped
Some might think that in some cases the loss of a person鈥檚 drone is a just punishment, such as where an operator creates disruption by intentionally flying a drone over a stadium during a game. But such cases are the small tip of a very large pyramid. Any law enforcement expert who works on drones will tell you that the vast majority of non-compliant flights are by 鈥渢he clueless and the careless.鈥� And a drone operator need not even be especially clueless or careless; as Haye Kesteloo at DroneXL , the World Cup TFRs extend across a three-nautical-mile radius around the stadiums 鈥� and there are enough complex drone regulations that even some operators who are aware they鈥檙e inside a restricted zone may mistakenly think they have authorization to fly drones there. For example, those using an FAA program called that grants exemptions to certain flight restrictions. 鈥淭he structure is layered in a way that traps even careful operators,鈥� as Kesteloo puts it.

But regardless of an operator鈥檚 intent, the fact is that the law gives police vast discretion to seize their drones based on a mere claim of wrongdoing. And to do so with no due process short of filing a federal lawsuit. If Congress wants to make loss of a drone part of the punishment for violating airspace restrictions, it should require that a person be prosecuted in a court of law and then their property seized after a conviction. In the United States, people shouldn鈥檛 have to go to court to prove their innocence in order to avert punishments.

Finally, in the wake of the Trump Administration鈥檚 on , these aircraft are becoming far more expensive technology than they used to be, making seizure a more significant risk, especially for an ordinary person or small commercial drone operator. And overall, the lack of checks and balances over the rules for drone seizures is just another part of a larger trend that we have discussed: the creation of a regime in which drones are reserved for government agencies and corporations, and individual users are squeezed out.