White County Public Safety in the north Georgia mountains has a new search-and-rescue drone, paid for with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) money that county commissioners approved. The county announced it in a news release that NOW Georgia carried on Monday, October 26. Public Safety Director David Murphy called it “a direct return on the investment our voters made through SPLOST.” Emergency Management Division Chief Don Strength will fly it, and any public safety agency in the county, including Cleveland and Helen, can call on it.

The release lists better thermal imaging, a live loudspeaker and the ability to fly in rain, which grounded the county’s earlier drones. It does not name the manufacturer. The county’s own photo shows a DJI Matrice 4TD. The FCC put DJI, along with every other foreign drone maker, on its Covered List ten months ago.

The County’s Photo Shows a Matrice 4TD, Not the “Air 2” on Its Arms

The fixed white arms, the Matrice 4 series camera and DJI’s AL1 spotlight and AS1 speaker on top identify White County’s drone as a DJI Matrice 4TD. The “Air 2” stickers on its arms are the county’s own name for the aircraft, not a DJI model.

The thermal camera rules out the camera-only Matrice 4D, and the rain claim fits the 4TD. It is IP55-rated for dust and water, while the folding Matrice 4T that DroneXL reviewed in February 2025 carries no rating at all, according to Heliguy’s comparison. DJI built the 4TD for the Dock 3 drone-in-a-box it launched that same month, and US dealers such as DSLRPros also sell it standalone with the RC Plus 2 controller. The county’s release names a pilot and mentions no dock.

The two accessories are the county’s “live loudspeaker” and the twin lamps in the photo. DJI’s AL1 spotlight lights subjects up to 328 feet (100 meters) away and can run alongside the AS1 speaker, which lets a crew talk to someone awaiting rescue before responders reach them.

Georgia Let Both of Its DJI Purchase Bans Die in 2026

Nothing in Georgia law kept White County from buying DJI. House Bill 205’s approved-drone list and Senate Bill 64’s ban on Chinese and Russian drones would both have bound state and local agencies from January 1, 2028, and neither one became law.

BillTrack50 marks HB 205 and SB 64 dead as of April 2. DroneXL covered both bills when they were introduced in February 2025. HB 205 cleared the House that month with one vote against, according to Capitol Beat. It reached the Senate Transportation Committee in March 2026, where emergency managers and public safety drone pilots testified that it would cut their capability and cost counties heavily, and the committee voted unanimously to table it. SB 64 was recommitted on January 12 and never came back. The agency HB 205 would have put in charge of the approved list, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, is the one that can now request White County’s DJI drone for neighboring communities.

The federal rules leave the purchase alone too. The FCC’s December 22, 2025, listing blocks new DJI models from authorization, but the Matrice 4D and 4TD got their equipment authorization on February 28, 2025, ten months earlier, so dealers can still sell them and agencies can still fly them. The American Security Drone Act bars federal grant money from buying Chinese drones, and SPLOST is a county sales tax. Florida, whose agencies cannot fly Chinese-made drones, parked a fleet worth an estimated $200 million under its own state ban.

DroneXL’s Take

Georgia’s Senate Transportation Committee listened to the emergency managers who testified against HB 205, and I think it made the right call. White County put its sales tax money into a thermal drone built to fly mountain searches in the rain. Under Florida’s rules, that aircraft would be parked.

I’d still like the release to name the aircraft. Local releases rarely name vendors, and the county did publish a photo that shows it, but Murphy frames the drone as a return on the voters’ investment, and those voters should be told what they bought. A county that made a defensible choice can say “DJI” in a press release. If the FCC adopts its July proposal on thermal drone imports, the next Georgia county that wants this aircraft won’t be able to buy it new, whatever Atlanta decides.

Sources: NOW Georgia, Georgia HB 205 on BillTrack50, Georgia SB 64 on BillTrack50, Georgia SB 64 on LegiScan, Citizen Portal, FCC ID SS3-M4D2411, Heliguy

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.