Missouri House passes bill targeting drones

JEFFERSON CITY  •  The state House wants to make Missouri a “no drone zone.”

On Tuesday, the House passed legislation that would bar warrant-less surveillance via manned or unmanned aircraft. It also would require journalists to seek permission from property owners before using unmanned aircraft, and private organizations or state agencies would have to seek permission for any aircraft surveillance.

“I believe the citizens of this state deserve and expect a reasonable amount of privacy,” said Rep. Casey Guernsey, a Republican from Bethany who sponsored the bill.

Missouri isn’t the first state to target the use of drones. According to local reports, Idaho lawmakers approved regulations on the use of drones this week. The Minnesota Legislature is considering a similar measure. Last month, Washington state lawmakers dropped their anti-drone effortsafter intense lobbying from aircraft-maker Boeing.

The drone bill that passed the Missouri House sets out specific protections for farms.

Citing a story that went viral last year, Guernsey told House members that he filed the bill in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s alleged use of drones in Nebraska and Iowa. But according to the Washington Post, the EPA never used drones. Instead, the agency has relied on small, manned aircraft to look for clean-water violations.

Nevertheless, Guernsey said on the House floor that the government has shown a willingness and capability “to actually spy on citizens.”

“We don’t want that to happen in Missouri,” he said.

During a debate on the bill, lawmakers also mentioned a debunked story that celebrity gossip siteTMZ.com is planning to use drones for paparazzi photos.

The anti-drone bill passed Missouri’s Republican-controlled House in an 87-66 vote.

Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, compared the measure to legislation that regulates the use of wiretaps. He said the Legislature is just trying to keep up with modern technology.

“It applies an old principal of the wiretap act to the new technology of drones that can be flown above family farms and family homes,” he said.

But some lawmakers said they worried the legislation could deal a blow to law enforcement efforts. The state Highway Patrol and other agencies use manned aircraft to find marijuana growers and meth labs, said Rep. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington.

In its initial form, the legislation only impacted the use of drones and other unmanned aircraft, but it was amended on the House floor to target manned aircraft, as well.

Engler said the amendment led some law enforcement officials to express concern over the impact on future investigations.

“This has opened up some areas that I didn’t anticipate,” he said.

Rep. Jeff Roorda, a Democrat from Barnhart and former police officer, said law enforcement often use varied surveillance tactics to track suspicious activities.

“That’s what I did when I worked undercover in narcotics,” he said. “(This legislation) goes way too far. It disables law enforcement’s ability to keep us safe.”