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SAFER SKIES Act Brief

The new counter-UAS authority for state & local public safety, made usable.

$39Self-paced · 7-segment legal spine + role-application track
Verifiable DELALLi Certificate of Completionapproximately 2 hours of documented seat timeBuilt to IADLEST NCP online-training standardsVerify a certificate →

A professional-education brief on what the SAFER SKIES Act and its July 2026 implementing rule (Part 124) changed for state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and correctional agencies — the two-tier certification structure, the credible-threat standard, the authorized-technology and FCC rules, the federal grant pathways, and the compliance obligations that keep the authority intact.

The situation

A drone shows up over your courthouse, your prison yard, your substation, your event. Not long ago, state and local agencies had no counter-UAS mitigation pathway of their own. Now — under 6 U.S.C. §124n, with the DOJ/DHS interim final rule “Part 124” effective July 1, 2026 — there is a defined SLTT pathway. But it is a path, not a switch. Between intent and a lawful, documented operation stand two certification tiers and a stack of independent, cumulative gates.

Which actions you may take depends on which certification your agency and your people hold. That authority is granted *notwithstanding* a specific set of federal criminal prohibitions — aircraft piracy, destruction of aircraft, computer fraud, satellite interference, and the wiretap and pen-register chapters of Title 18 — and the Act separately sets a civil fine of up to $100,000 per violation, or suspension of counter-UAS authority, for mitigation taken without the required federal coordination. Whether an out-of-compliance action still falls inside the statute's relief from criminal liability is not your call to make afterward: the rule reserves that determination to the Attorney General, in coordination with DHS (§124.20(d)). Most officers, deputies, and corrections staff have not been walked through any of it. The rule is here; the job now is walking the certification and gate-stack path before the first incident — not guessing at it during one.

What you'll learn

  • Why July 1, 2026 changed who can lawfully respond to a hostile drone
  • The two certification tiers — Detection & Warning vs. Mitigation — and exactly which actions each unlocks
  • Where confiscation actually sits, and the deputized task-force track most agencies miss
  • The Authorized Technologies and Systems Lists and the FCC rules for RF-based systems
  • The FEMA Counter-UAS Grant Program — DHS noticed and awarded $250 million in FY 2026 to build SLTT capability to detect, identify, track, or monitor UAS — and the NCUTC training string the FEMA funding notice put on mitigation capabilities bought with federal grant dollars
  • The federal criminal prohibitions the authority runs *notwithstanding* — and the compliance rhythm that keeps you inside the relief instead of arguing about it afterward

The curriculum

  1. OM

    Opening Module — Orientation

    ~27 min

    What this course is and what it is not, and how to use it. DELALLi educates and prepares; only the FBI NCUTC certifies counter-UAS mitigation authority, and this course confers none.

  2. S1

    The Fence Line

    ~8 min

    A drone over the jail yard, and the gap — open since Congress gave the counter-UAS authority to federal departments alone in 2018 — that closed on July 1, 2026. What this briefing will and won't do.

  3. S2

    The Authority — and the Line to Federal Court

    ~13 min

    Who received counter-UAS authority, over what, and the limits — including the federal criminal prohibitions the authority runs notwithstanding. Contractors may build and maintain, but not operate.

  4. S3

    The Two Tiers — and Why Certification Is Individual

    ~16 min

    Detection & Warning vs. Mitigation, the NCUTC path, the FAA Part 107 certificate the person who directly executes a mitigation action must personally hold, and why one certified officer is not agency coverage.

  5. S4

    What You May Buy and Use

    ~17 min

    The Authorized Technologies and Systems Lists, the FCC authority every RF system needs before it emits, and why detection leads first-wave procurement.

  6. S5

    Before You Operate — the Gate Stack

    ~21 min

    The governance and pre-operation obligations that are legal preconditions, not paperwork: implementation policy and annual attestation, the Operations Plan due not fewer than 7 calendar days before commencement, the advance notification due not fewer than 30 calendar days before the operational period — and what the rule says to do when those timelines aren't feasible.

  7. S6

    During and After an Action

    ~29 min

    The real-time and post-action clocks — FAA notice within 5 minutes of activation or as soon as operationally practicable, the 2-hour outer limit on notifications when the emergency exception is used, the 48-hour post-operation report, and the 180-day cap on records of communications unless a named exception is determined — plus where confiscation actually sits.

  8. S7

    Keeping the Authority

    ~8 min

    Audits, civil fines of up to $100,000 per violation, suspension mechanics, and how to put operating experience on the rulemaking record — the interim final rule's comment deadline was September 4, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Eastern (Docket FBI-2026-0001), and the course teaches the channel rather than a countdown.

  9. RA

    Role Application — Your Track

    ~ min

    The spine re-applied to your working reality, ending in a role-specific Monday-Morning checklist. The LE / patrol & aviation track is built; corrections, security & venues, and infrastructure tracks follow.

Who it's for

Sworn law enforcement, corrections officers and administrators, SLTT emergency managers, public-safety drone units, critical-infrastructure and event security.

What you get

  • Video lessons, self-paced, on any device — the seven-segment legal spine plus your role-application track
  • 8 downloadable references you keep and print — Certification-Ladder Card, Gate-Stack Card, Gate-Stack Readiness Checklist, Vendor Red-Flag Sheet, Reporting-Clock Card, Federal-Referral / MOU Card, Course Glossary, and Source & References Package
  • A 20-question knowledge check — pass at 80% (16 of 20), and at least half of each module’s questions, so no module can be skipped
  • A verifiable Certificate of Completion with a unique ID an employer can confirm — included with a paid seat, issued once you have passed the knowledge check AND worked through every lesson. Free enrollment includes the full course without it

Your instructor

Brian Rutherford brings an operator's lens to the drone threat. He is a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran whose decorations include multiple Combat “V”s, including a Bronze Star. In the Marine Corps, SSgt Rutherford also served as a Combat Marksmanship Instructor and Foreign Weapons Instructor and trained in high-risk personnel protection and tactical combat casualty care, among other things. As a U.S. State Department protective-security professional with Triple Canopy, he led protective operations in high-threat environments. He is an FAA Part 107 pilot, Clemson UAS graduate, NIST BPERP certified, and a certified infrared thermographer, and previously built and scaled a government-contracting company. His career has been about reading threats, protecting people and sites from them, and thinking like the adversary who creates them — the exact discipline counter-UAS demands.

Credit & credentials

  • Verifiable DELALLi Certificate of Completion, included with a paid seat — issued on course completion plus a passed knowledge check; unique ID, online verification. Free enrollment gives you the whole course; the verifiable certificate is what a seat buys
  • Self-reported continuing-professional-education credit may be available from your own credential body where it accepts the subject matter. The certificate states a documented seat-time figure measured from the finished course media itself, not estimated from a script — and acceptance is always your certifying organization's call, not ours
  • DELALLi is preparing this course for IADLEST National Certification (NCP) after live-course QA — we do not claim IADLEST, TCOLE, or POST credit until certification is granted

SS-100 makes you fluent in the framework — it does not certify or authorize you. The NCUTC certifies; DELALLi grants no authority, no certification, and no FCC or FAA approval. What this briefing gives you is a working command of the rule, so that when your agency walks the certification and gate-stack path, your people already understand it.

Always confirm continuing-education acceptance with your agency's training coordinator. This is not a state-developed mandated course.

Questions, answered

Is this “TCOLE approved”?
No. This briefing is not TCOLE approved, POST approved, or IADLEST NCP certified yet. It is built to the IADLEST NCP online-training standard, and DELALLi plans to submit it after live-course QA. Confirm any continuing-education acceptance with your training coordinator.
Is the law current?
Yes. The SAFER SKIES Act is in force, and the DOJ/DHS implementing rule “Part 124” (91 FR 41466) is effective July 1, 2026 — the course reflects it, including the two-tier certification ladder and the gate stack. Two things were still moving when this was written, and the course names them rather than pretending otherwise: the interim final rule carried a comment deadline of September 4, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Eastern (Docket FBI-2026-0001), and the FCC's four counter-drone actions — including the ruling that covers §333 immunity for SLTT mitigation — went under petitions for reconsideration or clarification filed by CTIA (FCC DA 26-853, oppositions due September 14, 2026). Those are dates on the record, not a countdown: check the docket and the FCC filings for current status. When the rule or its resources change, the course is updated and enrolled students are notified.
How long do I have access?
Lifetime, including updates.
Do I need any background?
No. It's built for working practitioners with no prior counter-UAS training.
Will this make me certified to jam or shoot down a drone?
No — and that's part of the point. Those actions live on the Mitigation rung of the certification ladder, which requires Detection & Warning certification plus FAA Part 107 and approved equipment. This briefing teaches the rule, the ladder, the gates, and the limits — so your people understand the path before they walk it.

Before you buy

The outline, length, and contents are published before you buy — read them and decide. Course purchases are final. The one exception is delivery: if you pay for a seat and we do not give you access, you get a full refund, and if the course will not be delivered at all we refund without you asking.