Content area

Abstract

With the rise, popularity, commercialization, and increasing presence of drones in the national airspace that have the potential to endanger national security if utilized inappropriately, it is only natural that the air-based vulnerabilities and threats have expanded and evolved. This creates an increased likelihood of drone accidents, drone incidents, and drone incident reporting. As such, the problem addressed in this qualitative, phenomenological, and exploratory in nature study was that there needs to be a greater understanding of the overall severity of the United States domestic drone threat and the impact of drone incident reporting on determining that threat. The purpose was to gain better insights into and collect data on the current state of drone incident reporting in the United States from individuals who collect reports on as well as assess the domestic drone threat. This study was also meant to address the impact of drone incident reporting on determining the overall severity of the drone threat in America. The questions asked in the one-on-one semistructured interview sessions stemmed from the two overarching research questions, which were utilized to determine the perceptions of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel: (a) How do the DHS employees (i.e., security personnel who have some lived experiences with drone incident reporting and a basic understanding of the domestic drone threat) perceive drone incident reporting in the United States? and (b) How does drone incident reporting impact the overall severity of the drone threat in the United States? Theoretical frameworks that grounded this study included tenets of homeland security and incident reporting architecture. The target population of this study included current DHS security personnel who were (a) adults who were actively employed as DHS security personnel, (b) had at least three years of security and drone experience, and (c) had some lived experience with drone incident reporting and have a basic understanding of the domestic drone threat. Data were collected from 11 participants recruited via the purposive and snowball sampling methods and analyzed via the modified van Kamm procedure for phenomenology and the NVivo 14 coding software was used to help develop themes. Results revealed that confusion arises and threat assessments become limited when there are inconsistencies and gaps in available data. This problem is exacerbated when there is no accepted standardization for analyzing drone incidents or consolidation for reporting sources. Conclusions signified that the goal should be to mitigate the problems identified in the research and seek resolution. Recommendations for future research include expanding the sample size to include other key stakeholders, determining how various stakeholders document drone incident reports, determining how effective drone incident reporting intake as well as triage can impact the process, determining how policies and authorities hinder effective drone incident reporting as well as analysis, and figuring out how the federal UAS incident tracking database should be set up to meet mission needs. 

Details

1010268
Title
Drone Incident Reporting in the United States: The Impact It Has on the Overall Domestic Drone Threat
Number of pages
174
Publication year
2025
Degree date
2025
School code
1900
Source
DAI-A 87/1(E), Dissertation Abstracts International
ISBN
9798288859830
Committee member
Sullivan, Robert
University/institution
Saint Leo University
Department
School of Arts & Sciences
University location
United States -- Florida
Degree
D.Crim.Jus.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
32122345
ProQuest document ID
3232282713
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/drone-incident-reporting-united-states-impact-has/docview/3232282713/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Database
ProQuest One Academic