The Transportation Department next week will reportedly announce that those purchasing a drone will be required to register it with the agency.
According to NBC News, the DOT will reveal details on Monday. Drone makers will have to work with the agency on how best to register their devices, with an eye on getting it done by year's end.
The report did not mention if this would be limited to drones of a particular size. But NBC pointed to recent incidents in which drones interfered with firefighting efforts out west and a flight taking off from JFK Airport in New York.
The news comes as U.K. police are dealing with a "significant increase" in drone-related incidents, according to The Guardian. Data provided to the newspaper through a Freedom of Information request shows a major uptick in "the number of cases where members of the public have reported nuisance drone flying to their local force." The U.K.'s Metropolitan Police Service, for instance, logged 21 such incidents this year, up from just one in 2014, while Thames Valley Police have already recorded 80 incidents in 2015, up from 20 last year.
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has been working on commercial drone regulations for several years, which would open the door to services like Amazon's PrimeAir drone-based deliveries. It was actually supposed to have those rules in place by Sept. 30, but had to push things back to the spring.
Until then, the FAA will be on the lookout for irresponsible drone operators. It's working on a system that would allow it to identify the owners of machines that fly within a file-mile radius of airports using radio signals between the drone and its operator.