FOCUS Police Protocols for Drones
Questions include, what did the drone look like? What was it doing? And for how long? Has this happened before?
have to register their aircraft due to an October announcement from the U.S. Department of Transportation creat- ing a special task force to create pro- cedures to ‘register’ privately owned drones (including thousands already in possession of U.S. citizens). The odds of a police officer being
called to handle a drone complaint relating to privacy, trespassing, or fear grow rapidly. In addition to dra- matic increases in ‘hobby’ droning, a growing number of private firms are utilizing UASes for a variety of law- ful purposes including mapping, aerial photography, agriculture, land- scaping, utility system maintenance, real estate management, and even package delivery. The complexity of existing federal
regulations has contributed to the hes- itancy of local law enforcement to ex- plore droning. Any UAS device owned and/or operated by a federal, state or local unit of government is considered to be a ‘public’ drone by the FAA. Gov- ernment drone operators must obtain a Certificate of Waiver and Authoriza- tion (COA) from the FAA (CFR Section 333) before they can fly and the appli- cation process includes the creation of a website account with the FAA office in Washington, D.C. The application process usually takes about 90 days. Yet some local agencies are experi- menting. In Mesa County, Colo., of- ficials worked through the lengthy FAA certificate process to use drones to track missing persons in the wilder- ness. Seattle and New York use drones,
and other agencies are exploring the possibility. Local law enforcement drone use has been limited mostly to search-and-rescue operations because surveillance drone use quickly draws the attention and ire of opponents. Pri- vacy laws limiting the use of drones by the police have been adopted in a few states while legislators have virtually ignored the potential dangers posed by private citizen droning. What should an officer do when a droning complaint is reported? Keep- ing in mind that droning itself is com- pletely lawful, officers must realize that it could also serve as the harbinger of a pending attack. Operators might be careless at times and violate federal guidelines, but unless specific federal or state laws have been violated, no
26 LAW and ORDER I May 2016
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