By: Dawn Zoldi*
When a suspicious drone pops up over a stadium, campus, or critical facility today, the most basic question can be the hardest to answer: Who’s behind the controls, and are they allowed to be there? The FAA designed its new DiSCVR tool to give law enforcement a faster, cleaner path to that answer. It turns what used to be a days-long investigative slog into a matter of minutes or hours.
From Remote ID Rule to Usable Intel
Remote identification (Remote ID) was supposed to be the “license plate of the sky,” broadcasting a drone’s unique ID so authorities could distinguish compliant operators from potential threats. The FAA’s 2021 Remote ID rule required most drones to broadcast this information. But for officers on the ground, multiple federal databases and manual processes effectively stranded that data.
DiSCVR, short for Drone Information for Safety, Compliance, Verification and Reporting, pulls those fragmented pieces together. It aggregates FAA registry data, Remote ID information and details from airspace authorizations and waivers into a single, law-enforcement-facing database hosted on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) geospatial platform. This one-stop investigative tool lets officers quickly see who owns a drone, where they’re registered and whether they’re authorized to operate in that airspace.
What DiSCVR Actually Does in the Field
For a patrol officer or task force investigator, DiSCVR starts with a simple question: Do I have a Remote ID number or a general location? The system allows users to either enter a Remote ID registration number directly or draw a geographic “rubber band” on a map to pull up registered drones associated with that area.
The FAA made the return intentionally straightforward. It includes the name, phone number and address for the drone’s registered owner or operator. With that, an officer can quickly determine whether the operator has a valid Part 107 certificate, an airspace authorization or a special waiver that explains why the aircraft is there. In one real-world case, campus police investigating a suspicious drone over a university were able to use DiSCVR to identify and call the operator at home, confirm his approved mapping waiver and clear the incident without ever dispatching a team to his location.
Crucially, DiSCVR only shows compliant, “cooperating” drones, those that operator/owners have registered and are broadcasting required. It does not detect non-compliant or spoofed aircraft. Instead, its value lies in separating the “known good” from the unknown. This allows limited counter-UAS teams to focus on genuinely suspicious targets, rather than chasing compliant news media, campus surveyors or commercial operators.
Access, Privacy and the Fusion Center Role
Because DiSCVR exposes personally identifiable information (PII) tied to drone registrations, including data on youth operators, the FAA has restricted it to law enforcement personnel and governed it with formal user agreements. DHS hosts the system. It can be accessed through regional fusion centers, which act as the sponsorship and coordination hubs. Nationwide, the FAA and DHS are working to activate DiSCVR through 78 fusion centers. Currently, DiSCVR is active at 25 of them and expanding.
To get access, an agency connects with its DHS law-enforcement sponsor, completes a streamlined five-step onboarding process and signs a user agreement that dictates how Remote ID and UAS registration data can be handled and shared. For major joint operations, such as FIFA World Cup security, sponsors can also grant access to additional detection and tracking tools that integrate with DiSCVR’s compliance data.
When DiSCVR does not return a result, for example, because a special waiver is not yet reflected in the system, officers are directed to existing FAA law enforcement assistance channels, including local Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) agents and specialized investigation and enforcement cells, particularly in the National Capital Region.
Why TSA Calls It a Game-Changer
Before DiSCVR, verifying a single Remote ID hit could mean hours or days of back-and-forth phone calls and email chains across multiple FAA offices and systems. TSA, which has been an early partner and heavy user of the tool for airport protection and runway exclusion zones, reports that those workflows have been compressed into minutes to hours. That speed matters when a drone is loitering near a final approach path or inside a presidential temporary flight restriction.
Abby Smith, CEO of Andersmith Solutions and Former Executive Director of UAS and Emerging Entrants Security at the FAA, who played a key role in enabling the funding and cross-organizational cooperation to realize the benefits of DiSCVR had this to say about it. “Working together across agencies, DiSVR enables law enforcement to enable careful, compliant and commercial operations without disruption and address careless, clueless and criminal ones in real time – something that was only a hope before this tool!” she said.
To date, TSA has used the DHS-hosted interface to conduct roughly 10,000 queries on drone user registrations and last-known locations. It has helped agents determine whether to dispatch interdiction teams or stand down using DiSCVR’s consolidated view.
Still a “Soft Rollout,” and Built to Evolve
FAA officials describe DiSCVR as a “soft rollout,” not a finished product. The system is read-only and still has gaps. For example, some special waivers are not yet visible. Real-time, handheld applications are an objective rather than a reality. Future executive direction, funding and interagency partnerships will drive deeper integration, including closer to real-time verification in the field.
The FAA now seeks law enforcement feedback. Agencies that sign on through their fusion centers are encouraged to push requirements back up the chain, such as what data is missing, what fields should be added, what workflows are too clunky. This information will enable the FAA to refine DiSCVR into an everyday investigative tool rather than a niche federal capability.
For agencies already grappling with drone calls at stadiums, campuses, critical infrastructure, and high-profile events, DiSCVR won’t replace counter-UAS sensors or traditional investigative work. Rather, it gives first responders a force-multiplying tool. It provides a faster way to sort compliant operators from potential threats, preserve limited enforcement resources and answer the public’s simplest question with much more confidence: Who’s flying that drone, and are they supposed to be there?
*This article was based on content from the DRONERESPONDERS NACON 2026.