Two City Council representatives introduced a plan to help regulate the use of drones in Phoenix during a city subcommittee meeting on Wednesday.
The new ordinance, if passed, would not only make intruding illegal, but would make creating a weaponized drone or investigations using drones without a search warrant illegal.
Drones are currently used by a variety of companies, individuals and government officials. Not only is this a fast-growing hobby, but drones are also used for taking videos and pictures in the real-estate industry, search-and-rescue missions, and delivery services, such as the well-known Amazon endeavor. This draft not only puts conditions on private use, but governmental use as well.
District 7 Councilman Michael Nowakowski and District 6 Councilman Sal DiCiccio are spearheading the ordinance. DiCiccio outlined the essentials of the ordinance in Wednesday’s Public Safety and Veterans’ Subcommittee meeting, citing “protecting individual privacy from neighbors and the government” as the main influences for the plan. The draft is viewable online through the city council’s website.
DiCiccio said that this is one of the most comprehensive proposals on unmanned aircraft at the city level across the country at this time.
The main concern that DiCiccio mentioned was that no state or federal laws are currently set in place on drones.
In the current draft, the councilmen are attempting to criminalize misconduct surrounding drone usage, though it was suggested by the other councilmembers that civil penalties would be more appropriate. Misconduct by an individual is referred to as using a drone to, “intentionally or surreptitiously film, audiotape, record, or intrude, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude … of another.”
In answer to the idea of a weaponized drone, the owner of Phoenix Drone Services, Mark Yori, said the creation of such a drone, “is nearly impossible.”
Yori said that the likelihood of drones interrupting the flights of commercial airlines is very low. Not only did he mention the idea that it is much more likely for a bird to get stuck in a jet engine than a drone, but he said the precautionary geo-fence that major drone companies are installing into their products will help prevent those incidents.
Geo-fences are virtual limits that an administrator can program into any unmanned aircraft, and corporations are beginning to automatically incorporate geo-fencing technology within a five-mile radius of all airports. Essentially, if a drone were to crash into this barrier, it would hover mid-air, unable to proceed forward.
Not only are geo-fences programmable into the drones themselves, but a few companies have started to offer to create geo-fences around individual properties to prevent any drone flyovers (though this is a pricey move to make at this time).
Yori said he believes that the drone ordinance is “pretty reasonable,” and “well written.”
The ordinance has been in the works for the past nine months. The subcommittee heads held this open forum to the concerns of the general public, and it responded. Representatives from the Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the National Association of Realtors all offered the council suggestions.
Toward the close of the hearing, District 1 Councilwoman Thelda Williams cautioned against optimism that the plan would get through City Council quickly.
“I think it has a long way to go,” she said.
Contact the reporter at rachel.banks@asu.edu.
