The agency is pretty shy about saying when and where exactly they’ll be flying the drones, saying that it all being carefully planned with other government agencies and departments and it’ll be “tightly controlled.”
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, hasn’t given a reason for the drones exercise, but it’ll happen after some embarrassing moments for the agency, including several White House fence jumpers – one who made it all the way inside before he was tackled and taken away – and a recent incident with a government employee who was flying a recreational drone and accidentally crashed it into the White House grounds.
The Obama administration recently proposed rules for regulating the use of small private drones, including restricting drone flights to the daytime and that they remain below 500 feet in the air.