Reports of drones flying near U.S. military installations have prompted questions about whether laws provide strong enough oversight. Proposed legislation could strengthen officials’ options, and a security expert says there’s more that can be done.

Drones have been thrust into the spotlight amid reports of unmanned aircraft in the sky around the Northeast. Here's what we know about flying them.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and U.S. Sen. Andy Kim have both gone out on drone hunts, hoping for answers. The FBI, Homeland Security, state police and other agencies are investigating. Murphy and law enforcement officials have stressed that the drones don’t appear to be a threat to public safety,

Much of the Northeast remained on edge after nearly a month of mysterious drone sightings. The FBI said the vast majority of the sightings were actually planes, and the White House said they have not identified anything over the civilian airspace that poses a security threat.

Mysterious flying objects overhead. Concern and confusion. And calls for military intervention. This isn’t the plot of “War of the Worlds,” but rather the result of numerous possible drone sightings in recent weeks.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) said on Dec. 11 that it did not consider drones spotted over New Jersey a threat and didn’t feel the need to engage them, contrary to social media posts asserting that the Pentagon had launched “Operation Necromancer” - echoing the name of a fictional project from the Star Wars franchise - to intercept the drones.