Regulation must keep pace with drones
This is the dawn of theDroneAge. Wewelcome this event … cautiously. It has the potential to be beneficial, but also the potential for considerable annoyance and evenmayhem. Howit plays out depends in large part on whether individuals use the flying robots responsibly.
A lot of readers just snorted derisively at the idea that drone users in South Florida (or anywhere else) will use common sense. Just look at howpeople misuse things ranging fromthe inherently dangerous— such as fireworks, guns and prescription painkillers— to things that are supposed to be inherently fun— such as hoverboards and bicycles. Not to mention the supreme lack of common sense people can show when driving their cars.
Irresponsible users keep emergency rooms busy.
Still, most people do use those things responsibly. Banning droneswouldn’t make sense. Careful regulation, however, does make sense. That should start with a requirement that the devices themselves are not built in such a shoddy fashion that they fall out of the sky. Then there have to be limits on who can pilot them, where and when. Finally, people who create dangerous situations using drones must face serious consequences.
Until nowdrones have been best known for their military uses. Piloted by remote control, they can strike fromgreat distances and are a keyweapon in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist organizations. But even the military, with high levels of training and technical expertise, makes mistakes that have killed civilians.
The drone your neighbor’s kid buys for amusement doesn’t have that kind of lethality. Neither does the commercial drone an engineering company dispatches to inspect bridges or a Realtor uses to show houses. Misused, however, each has the capacity to injure or even kill. That’swhy the Federal Aviation Administration has promulgated rules for both recreational and commercial drones— also calledUnmanned Aircraft Systems.
Even people flying drones as small as .55 pounds have to register the devices and followcertain rules, such as flying them only within line of sight and steering clear of manned aircraft.
Rules are more stringent for commercial drones, including the requirement that operators receive certification training. Commercial drones canweigh up to 55 pounds but must be used during the day and below400 feet.
Drones can provide both fun and profit. Butwe admit to considerable trepidation about their dangers. Drones crashing down onto people or vehicles can cause serious or fatal injuries. Drones also have the potential to be annoyingly— or illegally— intrusive.
There already are 2,200 registered drones in Florida. The craft have been used to buzz Donald Trump’sMar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and Rush Limbaugh’s home on that island. We have no doubt that ordinary families also could find themselves spied on by neighbors.
CarmenMcGarry, a Hillsborough Beach commissioner, says she sawa drone hovering outside her home, near a window, for hours one night. Nowonder Hillsborough Beach, Palm Beach and otherswant to establish their own rules regulating drones. But it is an open question exactly howfar municipalities can go in restricting their use.
Can they, for example, require drone operators to get local permits? Can they be required to carry liability insurance? If a neighbor flies a drone above your property, can you knock it out of the sky?
WhenMcGarry asked if she could shoot down the drone intruder, the police chief told her “Don’t you dare.” But who knows what the legal intricacieswould be?
Then there is an even more serious problem: What is the potential for terrorists to use drones? Might that potential call for much stricter regulation of drones?
It will take years to realistically gauge the threat drones pose and to enact rules and penalties that dissuade the careless and the criminal. Local officials must be part of the discussion, along with state and federal authorities.
It is slightly scary that regulation of the Drone Age is just in the Stone Age.