Page 9 - TIPJar Winter 2018

Drones

Serving and Disturbing the Public

BY
DAVID J. WOLFE
AND
IAIN J. MACMILLAN

he Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that nationwide, ownership of small
unmanned aerial systems, better known as drones, will increase from 2.5 million in 2016
Tto 7 million in 2020. The technology’s benefit to public agencies is enormous: Local public
agencies can and do use drones for search and rescue activities, emergency medical response,
survey and mapping purposes, student learning and more. But the rising number of drone-related
incidents in California and elsewhere illustrates the need for local rules that protect public safety
and privacy.

For example, the City of Seattle held a four-day trial in 2017 to prosecute a drone operator for
reckless endangerment after a drone flying over a parade fell from the sky and struck and injured
two people. A local prohibition on flights over crowds or in certain downtown areas would have
eliminated the need for a long, fact-intensive trial and would have allowed the city to make it clear
to operators that such conduct was prohibited.

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