The Blade | Jeremy Wadsworth
Legislation expressly permitting warrantless law enforcement drone surveillance is set to become law on Oct. 6.
House Bill 251, sponsored by state Rep. Bernard Willis (R., Springfield), flew under the radar as the Ohio General Assembly considered bills on data centers, Medicaid fraud, voter ID, and capital appropriations before lawmakers’ summer recess.
The legislation was approved by both chambers overwhelmingly — 89-5 in the Ohio House and 31-2 in the Ohio Senate — and was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine on July 7. All northwest Ohio legislators voted in favor of the final version of H.B. 251.
The bill generally requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant to use a drone to gather surveillance data only if the officer would normally be required to obtain a search warrant to enter a facility in-person to conduct a search.
“House Bill 251 was supposed to be a drone regulation bill. Unfortunately, it does very little regulation and very much kicks the door wide open for mass surveillance using drones,” said Gary Daniels, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.
“It explicitly says law enforcement and government can use drones to surveil people as long as they’re out in the public where anybody else can see them, which is essentially what we try to prevent with regulation bills — not to bless with legislation,” Mr. Daniels continued. “Whatever they’re recording — this video, this data of us … will be available under Ohio’s public records law.”
Specifically, the bill says a law enforcement agency can use a drone for surveillance without a warrant when operating in a “navigable airspace, in a physically non-intrusive manner, in order to observe what is otherwise visible to the naked eye.”
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Be sure to visit the BWU Technology Partnerships Initiative website to learn more about how our NEOFIX program drives economic growth, promotes policy and infrastructure to improve drone safety and efficiency in various industries, and ensures that drone technology is being used responsibly.