Systems and methods for detecting, monitoring, and mitigating the presence of a drone are provided herein. In one aspect, a system for detecting presence of a drone includes a radio-frequency (RF) receiver configured to receive an RF signal transmitted between a drone and a controller. The RF signal includes a synchronization signal for synchronization of the RF signal. The system can further include a processor and a computer-readable memory in communication with the processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause the at least one processor to receive a sequence of samples from the RF receiver, obtain a double differential of the received sequence of samples, calculate a running sum of a defined number of the double differential of the received sequence of samples, and detect the presence of the drone based on the running sum.