Swindell, David, Kevin Desouza, and Sabrina Glimcher.

"Drones and the "Wild West" of

Regulatory Experimentation." Tech Tank: Improving Technology Policy. The Brookings
Institution, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2015/08/17-state-drone-regulationsdesouza>.

UAV (Unmanned Areal Vehicle) known as drones are emerging technology

Government regulations on their usage are lagging way behind innovation
Limited options to prevent drone flying over or near ones property
o Can turn up music and close shades
Privacy and safety concerns
Misuse of drones due to lack of regulations
o Drone flying over San Bernardino County fire caused safety risk to pilots of
tanker flight requiring flight to be aborted
o Five drones flying over a 20-car fire in Southern California caused manned tanker
aircraft to be grounded for safety (2 drones actually chased manned aircraft)
o Drones used as peeping toms
o Drones crashed into cars and homes
o Drones used to smuggle drugs into prisons
o Drones used to smuggle drugs from Mexico into US
o Connecticut teen modified drone to fire semi-automatic weapon (broke NO laws)
Uneven drone laws in US like the wild west
o Nevada & Wisconsin passed legislation preventing weaponization of drones
o By end of 2014, 36 states introduced some legislation aimed at protecting privacy
Only 4 passed last year
o Only 17 states have some drone regulation
o Several have pending drone legislation
o Most of the drone laws focus on limiting police use of drones
Require probable cause warrants to use drones
o Nevada has the most drone laws
No weaponization of drones
Laws allowing homeowner to sue person flying drone over personal
property under certain circumstances
Requires law enforcement to get warrant to fly drone over home
w/expectation of privacy
Benefits of drone technology
o Amazon package delivery
Under experimental testing agreement with FAA
Will impact partnership with US Postal Service
o Flirtey delivered medicine to rural area
o Future pizza delivery???
Law making challenge
o Development is rapid and ahead of laws to reign in excessive drone activities
o Government needs to make drone laws NOW (be more proactive)
Delicate balance in laws of competing interests

 Legitimate commercial uses

Policing
Public safety
Privacy
Private property
Airspace
Gov. laws on new technologies usually too heavy-handed limiting
potential opportunities
Ex. Iowa City, Iowa and Charlottesville, Virginia were early
adopters of complete bans on all surveillance drones preventing
police usage
o Drone technology not going away
o Drone technology is not the problem
o How people use it is a potential problem
This recent article describes the misuses of drones due to lack of regulations as well as their
advantages. It describes the uneven laws currently in effect. The article also explains the
challenge of making drone laws and balancing interests. Are these laws up to date? What other
positive uses have been found for drones?