--- title: "Surveillance-Happy Police In Shambles After Trump Tariffs Makes Drones Absurdly Expensive" description: "Trump slapped an steep 100 percent tariff on foreign-made drones, and police departments across the nation aren't pleased." date: "2026-09-06" modified: "2026-09-06" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/surveillance-piolice-trump-tariffs-drones" categories: - "Drones" - "Future Society" - "Privacy" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Surveillance-Happy Police In Shambles After Trump Tariffs Makes Drones Absurdly Expensive ![A color-treated photo of a police drone.]() *Shutterstock/Futurism* The surveillance state costs money, people! Well, tell that to president Trump. On Thursday, he slapped a 100 percent tariff — he sure loves round numbers and levying imports — on larger foreign-made drones. Trump claimed that this "bolsters national security." But, ironically, it could be undermining *domestic* security — at least according to surveillance-happy police departments who've gotten used to [overlooking their subjects from above](), according to a [roundup of commentary from *Ars Technica*](). Speaking [to the *New York Times*](), Scott Mlakar, chief of the Lake County Drone Unit outside Cleveland, called the tariffs financially onerous and lamented that it would prevent many communities from buying them, adding that his unit uses them to hunt crime suspects at night and search for lost children. "Most of this, in our humble opinion, is lobbying by US manufacturers to eliminate foreign competition," he said. "This is not national security. It's protectionism." The tariff is explicitly designed to target popular Chinese drones, while making exceptions or imposing much lighter tariffs on drones made from allies like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the EU. In particular, these steep duties will apply to drones that use thermal imaging or weigh more than 55 pounds. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is weighing reclassifying some drone technologies like lidar as "military grade," *Ars* noted, which would restrict who can access these drones even further. Drones have a lot of other practical uses beyond law enforcement, obviously, including monitoring wild fires and assisting rescue operations. Amid heightened backlash against Flock, though, they've come to be [seen as another surveillance apparatus](). But weaning the US off Chinese drone tech is supposed to be good for national security, according to the Trump administration. One small problem: a single Chinese company, DJI, makes more than 70 percent of the world's commercial drones, according to the *NYT*. Good luck replacing all those. Plenty of other cops are bellyaching about the tariffs, too, extolling how irreplaceable that awesome Chinese made drones have become to their operation. *Ars* spotted a Texas police officer named Jason Lee, for instance, who [complained to the FCC]() that "there is currently no economically viable domestic replacement" for DJI drones. "More than 80 percent of state and local law-enforcement drone programs surveyed in 2024 used DJI aircraft," he added. "The fact that a domestic product exists does not necessarily mean it is a viable substitute," Lee said. "A replacement must be operationally comparable, economically obtainable, supported by an adequate supply chain, and accepted by pilots who must rely on it during real-world incidents." **More on drones:** [*Amazon Delivery Drone Drops Package Directly Into Customer’s Swimming Pool*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()