{"id":8000,"date":"2026-04-17T14:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/?p=8000"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:03:21","slug":"faa-uas-violation-policy-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/2026\/04\/17\/faa-uas-violation-policy-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA UAS Violation\u00a0Policy Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On April 16, the&nbsp;Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a new initiative intended to accelerate enforcement actions involving certain drone violations. The program, titled the Drone Expedited and Targeted Enforcement Response (DETER) program,&nbsp;was introduced in a brief&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/newsroom\/faa-launches-new-program-accelerate-enforcement-drone-violations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release on the FAA\u2019s website<\/a>,&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2026\/04\/17\/2026-07585\/settlement-policy-for-small-unmanned-aircraft-system-uas-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a statement from William McKenna<\/a>, the FAA\u2019s Chief Counsel, which was released on the Federal Register.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the FAA, the program&nbsp;addresses&nbsp;minor\/first-time&nbsp;violations through a faster administrative process&nbsp;whereby&nbsp;operators may be offered reduced&nbsp;penalties&nbsp;in exchange for admitting liability and waiving appeal rights.&nbsp;The FAA also&nbsp;stated&nbsp;that law enforcement partners will be able to notify the agency of drone violations in real&nbsp;time;&nbsp;however,&nbsp;no&nbsp;further details have been&nbsp;provided on&nbsp;if new procedures or communication portals are being&nbsp;established&nbsp;to facilitate this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this time, no reporting system has been identified as part of the announcement, and the FAA has&nbsp;indicated&nbsp;that the program will be used only in select locations and during certain time periods.&nbsp;Additional&nbsp;details may become available as the program develops, but information&nbsp;indicates&nbsp;that&nbsp;the program may primarily guide referral actions on complaints&nbsp;submitted&nbsp;by local&nbsp;authorities, while the FAA\u2019s review of larger infractions and existing airspace procedures should remain unchanged.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>AMA is reviewing the announcement and related policy documents to better understand any potential impact on recreational model aviation operations.&nbsp;Members should continue following all applicable&nbsp;AMA safety guidance,&nbsp;FAA regulations,&nbsp;and airspace restrictions; if any operations are called into question under this&nbsp;program, please contact&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:amagov@modelaircraft.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amagov@modelaircraft.org<\/a>&nbsp;with details to discuss.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To remain current\u202fwith the most recent government-related news, regularly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visit the AMA Government Affairs blog<\/a>. If you have any further questions or concerns, contact the Government Affairs department at (765) 287-1256 or\u202f<a href=\"mailto:amagov@modelaircraft.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amagov@modelaircraft.org<\/a>.\u202f\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 16, the&nbsp;Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a new initiative intended to accelerate enforcement actions involving certain drone violations. The program, titled the Drone Expedited and Targeted Enforcement Response (DETER) program,&nbsp;was introduced in a brief&nbsp;press release on the FAA\u2019s website,&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;a statement from William McKenna, the FAA\u2019s Chief [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002461,"featured_media":7997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,56,7,136,189],"tags":[280,36,80,279,128,276,281,277,127,282,278],"class_list":["post-8000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airspace","category-drone","category-faa","category-registration","category-uas","tag-action","tag-airspace-2","tag-drones","tag-enforcement","tag-faa","tag-model-aircraft","tag-new","tag-policy","tag-suas","tag-system","tag-violation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8001,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8000\/revisions\/8001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amablog.modelaircraft.org\/amagov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}