Source: http://www.droneattorneyusa.com/
Timestamp: 2017-09-21 08:33:51
Document Index: 228949429

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 934', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 62', 'art 107', 'art 107']

Drone Attorney USA - Blog
Florida's Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act and Other State Drone Laws
Drone laws are new terrain for both the federal and state legal systems across the U.S., and as such, the state legislatures have been busy proposing various drone legislation to help navigate through this new drone legal world. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been proactive in taking control of the regulation of drones, but there has been a running battle between the federal government and several states, including Florida, California and New York,
​Last year, Florida enacted a statute known as "Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act." This statute bans Florida law enforcement agencies from using drones to gather evidence or any other information on citizens. Some exceptions to the statute include using drones for aerial mapping, capturing images by or for an electric, water, or natural gas utility, and for using them under the scope of a warrant.
The Florida law enforcement agencies affected by the enacted law include all local sheriff offices and police departments, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), but the law DOES NOT have any legal effect on Federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF, the U.S. Attorney, the U.S. Marshall Service, or Homeland Security. Florida Statute § 934.50. creates a civil right of action whereby an individual can sue in civil court to stop the surveillance and can also use the statute to prevent evidence from being used in a court in Florida in a criminal prosecution.
Now, Florida's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) is seeking permission to use drones, as an exception to the law. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), a law enforcement agency under the DHSMV, would like to use drones “...for complex traffic crash scenes where aerial photos and scene mapping can aid in clearing roads" The DHSMV's request is part of their 2017 Legislative Concepts package, which proposes the state of Florida create "...a pilot program in coordination with the FDOT traffic management to allow law enforcement to use drones for traffic crash management and clearance."
Other states are also going through the fine tuning of drone legislation, just as Florida is now. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), as part of their Domestic Drone Information Center (DDIC), keeps an updated Bill Map, showing pending drone legislation throughout the United States, including active federal legislation.
One of the reasons that the federal government has taken the lead on drone legislation is because of the heightened concern in the U.S. that drones could be used not only to violate reasonable expectations of privacy by individuals, but to kill people at public gatherings, such as football games and rallies. This heightened concern prompted Congress to push the FAA by enacting the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-95). This law allowed the FAA to take the lead in creating rules and also funded the FAA to enforce the rules.
For now, since the battle of drone regulation seems to be won so far by the feds, it's useful to have a thorough understanding of the FAA UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) regulations, specifically on the new requirements of registering drones for flight and what can get you in major trouble if you are acting without proper licensing and such. I suggest that you take an hour or more to go to the FAA website, specifically their new comprehensive UAS rule (Part 107), which will help you become very familiar with what regulations have been created before you go out and fly your drones into trouble.
Last year, the White House issued a memo titled "Presidential Memorandum: Promoting Economic Competitiveness While Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems," which is a glimpse of what is coming in the near future in regard to drone regulation.
DOJ's ​Policy Guidance on Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems​
FAA's Frequently Asked Questions on UAS Regulation
FAA Rule Part 107 News
On June 21, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a fact sheet and the updated regulations in Part 107. Every drone owner and seller needs to read Part 107 .This blog entry is a basic primer.
The new rules clarify and define non-hobbyist aircraft as unmanned aircrafts (UAS), weighing less than fifty-five pounds. They are denominated as “Small Unmanned Aircrafts.” Operators MUST avoid manned aircrafts: Right of way issues always required a drone operator to yield flight path priority to manned aircraft. According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, this final rule opens "...a new era in aviation, and the potential for unmanned aircraft will make it safer and easier to do certain jobs, gather information, and deploy disaster relief.” It also begins a new area of legal definition by setting the mandatory standard of operation as “…never operate in a careless or reckless manner.” Careless and / or reckless definitions vary from state to state and from one federal jurisdiction to another.
Part 107 requires an operator to:
Maintain visual line-of-sight monitoring. Use of binoculars is not permitted to bring the visual operator within the meaning of the rule “within sight.”
Use of “First Person View,” which requires a spotter at all times who must maintain visual contact at all times, in the form of an unaided line-of-sight visual contact.
Small UAS operations can only be done during daylight hours. Daylight hours are defined as thirty minutes before local sunrise, up until thirty minutes after local time sunset.
Maximum allowable altitude operation is below four hundred feet.
Minimum visual line of sight is three miles unaided.
Maximum speed is one hundred miles per hour.
Height regulations apply for operations near buildings and structures (see Rule).
You cannot fly over or above any person who is not the operator or spotter.
You cannot operate a UAS inside a covered stationary vehicle.
You cannot launch, land or operate a UAS from a moving vehicle in a populated area.
Operating in a Class “G” space required air traffic control permission.
Operating in a Class B,C, D, and E airspace requires ATC approval (See Chapter 14 in the FAA’s Pilot Handbook).
Loads must be secured or attached.
Part 107 addresses operator qualifications and certifications and will cause hobbyists who cross the line problems. The age limit is a minimum of sixteen years. The FAA now requires operators pass an aeronautical knowledge test. See the FAA website for more information on this. Any operator with a Part 62 pilot certificate (other than a student pilot) must have completed a flight review within the past two calendar years.
For more information, review the additional sources below and consult with an attorney whose practice is in drone law.
FAA's Summary of Part 107 Rule
DroneLife.com's "What is 'Part 107'?"
FAA Increases its Detection Program to Avoid Drone Crashes with Commercial Aircrafts
​Last week, the FAA announced that it was expanding the part of its Pathfinder Program, which focuses on identifying unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that are operated near airports.
With the increase in the number of near misses between drones and commercial air carriers, the FAA has announced a significant increase and expansion of its airport security surveillance, under the Pathfinder Program.
Despite the FAA’s implementations of its drone registration program and its B4UFLY app, the FAA recently reported an increase of drone sightings and near misses between drones and commercial aircrafts. The FAA’s B4UFLY app, introduced to you previously in our blog, is aimed at educating UAS users about flying regulations.
The main focus of the program is to detect and identify unmanned aircraft systems near airports. To help in their efforts, the FAA is enlisting outside contractors by entering into Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRDAs) with several non-FAA based organizations, including Gryphon Sensors Inc., Liteye Systems Inc., and Sensofusion Inc. These companies will help research technologies that will “…detect, track, and identify UAS in and around our nation’s airports and sensitive areas.”
Georgia Governor Calls for More Federal Control of Drones
This week, Nathan Deal, the Governor of Georgia, vetoed a comprehensive drone bill, which had been passed by the Georgia Legislature because he wants the U.S. Federal government to “take the lead” by acting more aggressively to regulate and control commercial drones.
House Bill 779, although vetoed, was a comprehensive piece of legislation that covered a lot of ground, from privacy rights to the use of weaponized drones. One aspect of the bill would have banned the use of drones in hunting game, fish, and other wildlife. Another aspect of the bill was aimed at protecting property owners in Georgia from drones landing on their property. For example, the bill would have prohibited law enforcement from using drones for surveillance in private places without a warrant with a few exceptions. One exception to a warrant would have been to use drones to track escaped prisoners or missing children.
A troubling part of the bill criminalizes a huge series of acts, which included using a drone to capture an image of a person or a “private place,” using any images so obtained for commercial or non-commercial purposes, and even possessing such an image would have been criminalized. It also would have criminalized photographing a military base or military activity or a utility (gas and electric) transmission facility, equipping a drone with a weapon of any kind, flying a drone over any public highway, such that it in any manner impeded or obstructed a motorist, and using a drone in any way that obstructed police, firefighters, or emergency personnel.
​China is a Rising Force in the Drone Business
​In the past two years, China has emerged as a major supplier of high-quality drones. The United States Department of Defense in May of last year announced and published a review of Chinese advances in drone manufacturing. The report, entitled Military and Security Developments Involving The People’s Republic of China, said estimates indicate China plans to produce over 42,000 unmanned systems. The estimated value of those drones is $10.5 billion. This would place China in the forefront, if not in the lead, in world-wide production and distribution of unmanned aircraft systems. Reportedly, Chinese production of unmanned vehicles will exceed $5.7 billion in a few years.
This is a growing concern with China becoming a leader in the drone manufacturing industry is that it could become a supplier to U.S. enemies and the Chinese alternative killer drones impinged on U.S. military concerns. The United States has been a leader in the use of armed drones to effect kills remotely. United States killer drones have been dispatched to combat zones throughout the world. China may be the new player in the use of drones reigning death as an extension of military power.
Source: mcntvnew.com
Author: Ralph S. Behr, Esq.​
​Do not shoot down that drone that is irritating you. The odds are that legal troubles will overwhelm you after the glow of the take down. Why?
First, you will find that there are laws and ordinances that make it unlawful to discharge a firearm in the jurisdictional limits of towns and cities in every state, town, and city in the U.S. Firing at anything, whether it is an attack dog, a wandering deer, a bear, a mouse or a drone will violate the no fire zone in your home’s town or city.
What about self defense? Well, maybe. The drawback to raising the defense of “self-defense” is that it only comes up when you are on trial and it is raised as a legal argument. Do you want to get arrested, handcuffed, magistrated, bonded, arraigned, hire a criminal defense lawyer (or a public defender), sit through pre-trial discovery motions, court hearings, motions, jury selection, start a trial and then explain to a jury that you were in fear of harm from a drone flying over your home? Not a good option.
How about your property rights being violated by someone’s drone trespassing into your airspace? Again, good luck with that. You will have some issues to wrestle with because and although you do have the right to use your property and deny other people access to your property, a drone is not considered a person. Having a drone fly over your property may be a nuisance and you can sue the drone owner for trespass and get some civil court judge to award you compensation for violating your privacy rights, but, again, only after the expense of hiring a lawyer and going to trial. The problem is establishing your monetary damages or loss from the drone flying over your property. Unless your nephew the sharp lawyer is willing to take the case for free…forget it.
Now I know some of readers have seen the news articles about shooting drones legally but that only pertains to law enforcement. A bill was recently introduced in Utah that, if passed, would allow law enforcement officials to shoot down drones if they are trespassing a property.
Drone Upstages King Kong
This past Thursday, February 4th, a New Jersey man upstaged King Kong when he was arrested for accidentally flying his drone into the Empire State Building in Manhattan. The man identified as Sean Riddle, 27, is now facing charges of reckless endangerment.
In the original King Kong movie, and the more recent remake of the King Kong saga, the oversized gorilla comes to New York, escapes and climbs the Empire State Building. Now turn the calendar ahead to 2016 and a New Jersey man in a 21st century update of an assault on the Empire State Building, flew his drone into the 40th floor. After striking the 40th floor the drone fell and came to rest on a ledge on the 35th floor.
The drone owner, in an act he no doubt regrets, thought first of recovering his drone and gave no thought to the fact that what he did was not only bad judgment but also a crime. He went into the building and asked the security officer to help him retrieve his drone from the 35th floor. Agreeing to be “helpful” the security officer called the New York City Police Department. Upon arriving at the Empire State Building the police arrested Riddle, who purported to own the drone. Sad and disappointed he didn’t get his drone back but was taken into custody.
Miami is Actively Seeking and Courting the Drone Industry
In 2015, the City of Miami and the State of Florida took affirmative steps to keep drone makers and related drone industry service providers in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale Florida area. Miami has a great many drone makers and advanced robotic industry players and is seeking to keep them and bring in related technology companies. Press releases from the Miami-Dade Commission and several Miami and Florida economic development commissions have outlined what is becoming a reality: That Miami may become for drones what Silicon Valley is for the high tech industry.
Industry commentators and boosters, including Consumer Electronic Association Research tell us that in 2015 the global market for private drones will approach 130 Million dollars in revenue, a 55 percent increase from 2015. It has been projected that by 2010 sales will exceed one billion dollars. Future projections over the next ten years suggest that the drone industry will create 100,000 new jobs in the United States alone and the total dollar transactions will be valued at or near $82 Billion. Ask where will all this revenue comes from and the answer is delivery drones, humanitarian organizations, law enforcement, relief efforts in disaster areas, military uses, the film and movie industries, advertising, real estate, farm and agricultural monitoring, insurance inspections and the list goes on and on….
Falling Drones?
Today, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Air Force experienced a record number of drone crashes last year, adding pressure at a time when drones have become imperative for counterterrorism operations. The world’s largest operator of drones is the U.S. Military and their drones are often of considerable size and can be security breaches and critical hazards if they fall from the sky. And fall they do!
More than 400 drones have fallen from the sky since reporting started in 2001, although the crashes were sparingly reported to the public. As recently as 2015, the military has reported that in excess of twenty of the military’s largest drones were destroyed or badly damaged in accidents and failures. That makes 2015 the worst year in reported drone failures.
Since 2001, the military has reported more than 400 crashes reported in total, with 237 of those crashes categorized as “Class A” mishaps. A “Class A” mishap, by military standards, means the accident destroyed the drone aircraft or caused more than two million dollars in damages. Loss of life reports are not provided by the military when reporting drone failures in the “Class A” category.