{"id":236264,"date":"2026-04-17T22:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236264\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:54:08","slug":"lawmakers-approve-16m-for-drone-detection-ahead-of-world-cup-in-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236264\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers approve $16M for drone detection ahead of World Cup in South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0April 17, 2026 at 6:26 PM<\/p>\n<p>lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpand<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SHA7YG6YSZCZ3FFYCQ73YEHB2E.png\"  width=\"1042\" height=\"586\"\/>WPLG <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 In a matter of minutes during a budget hearing in Tallahassee, lawmakers signed off on a $16 million advance for FIFA security equipment for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement &#8212; not for drones, but for the ability to detect them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cDetect RF signals, to detect drones &#8212; unlawful drones,\u201d said Tim Fitzgerald of the FDLE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Law enforcement has identified unmanned aerial attacks as a significant threat for the FIFA World Cup games, including the seven matches set to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in June and July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The FDLE funding is the latest addition to a growing pool of public money and resources tied to the World Cup in South Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Miami-Dade, the host county, is on track to commit between $38 million and $46 million &#8212; split between cash and public safety services like police and paramedics. Broward County is contributing $2 million in marketing funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The $16 million from FDLE comes on top of more than $5 million in federal funding &#8212; highlighted by a large check presented to the Miami-Dade sheriff about a week and a half ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cProjections for the income is a lot greater than the money we are investing,\u201d Miami Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">That\u2019s been the key argument for county leaders backing the spending &#8212; with FIFA projections estimating an economic impact of 10 times or more the public investment, even as some remain skeptical.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Glenna Milberg\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/099bf4a7-492f-4b89-a5.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Glenna Milberg<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Emmy award-winning journalist Glenna Milberg joined Local 10 News in September 1999. She hosts &#8220;This Week in South Florida&#8221;, South Florida\u2019s highest-rated, most-watched public affairs program, anchors Local 10 World News Weekends, and covers South Florida&#8217;s top stories and big issues for Local 10 News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0April 17, 2026 at 6:26 PM lead-art-block.fullscreen-enterExpandWPLG TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 In a matter of minutes during a budget&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-236264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}