Austin clarifies its rules on drone aircraft
Crackdown modified to apply only to aircraft flown amid large crowds or in a reckless fashion.
Austin police memo says that enforcement efforts should be limited to reckless flying of drones.
Harry Wurzburg is relieved he doesn’t have to drive to Round Rock to fly his model aircraft anymore.
After a crackdown on drones in Austin during South by Southwest — and continuing in the weeks after, when an officer gave Wurzburg a written warning for flying his model plane on his church’s property — the Austin Police Department said Thursday it would scale back its efforts to “only enforce laws and ordinances relating to their safe operation.”
That’s a departure from the police department’s previous stance that drones and other radio-controlled devices fell under the city code that applies to all aircraft. That code requires anyone operating an aircraft in Austin to have Federal Aviation Administration certification for themselves and their aircraft. Since many peo- ple flying drones have neither, some of them received warnings from police.
“The news today is good,” Robert Youens, owner of Cam- era Wings Aerial Photography, told the Austin City Council on Thursday. He originally
planned to ask the council to clarify the rules for drones, but said his mission had changed once he learned that “no longer will APD be citing guys for flying their toy aircrafts in their church yards.”
Youens, whose photography company uses a drone to get aerial shots, contacted Police Chief Art Acevedo after learning Wurzburg and others had received warnings. Wurzburg, who said he had permission to fly on his church property April 1, said this was the first time in 28 years that a police officer told him he couldn’t fly.
“I’ve been in that same church parking lot (for years) and had police come up and want to know ‘How can I do it? How can I get it for my kid?’” Wurzburg said. “I let them look at it.”
Acevedo made an announcement before South by Southwest that drones would not be allowed to fly during the festival. After the event, officers continued to enforce the ban.
But an APD memo issued Thursday clarifies that officers should focus their enforcement efforts on instances in which the devices are being flown “over or near events with a large number of people,” or “in a careless or reckless manner that creates a danger to another person’s health or property.”
Officers should also cite those who interfere with air navigation, the memo said. However, the officers were told a license or certificate was not required to operate the drones.
The memo notes that the FAA is developing rules for the operation and registration of drones and other “unmanned aircraft systems.” The city will revisit its code when the FAA approves those regulations, said Bryce Bencivengo, the city’s public information officer for sustainability and innovation.
“We’re going to have an ongoing conversation about how our code keeps up with technology,” Bencivengo said. “When this was written, which I believe was in 2004, this was never on the radar as part of that.”