New Jersey drone reports: separating reported sightings from confirmed identifications (author discussion)

The New Jersey drone reports are the subject of Chapter 12 of my book. I’d like to discuss a question that matters beyond this one case: how should an account distinguish what was reported, what was independently detected, and what was actually identified? One useful anchor is the joint DHS/FBI statement dated December 12, 2024. At that point the agencies said they had not corroborated the reported visual sightings with electronic detection, and that many images reviewed appeared to show lawf...