{"id":23434,"date":"2018-02-23T16:41:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T22:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23434"},"modified":"2018-02-23T16:41:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T22:41:41","slug":"regulations-proposed-for-unmanned-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=23434","title":{"rendered":"Regulations proposed for unmanned aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 23 on a bill that would regulate the use of unmanned aircraft systems in several areas of statute.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Carol Blood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB693, introduced by Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood, would broaden the legal definition of intrusion to include the viewing of another person in a state of undress directly or through electronic means.<\/p>\n

Violation of this provision would be a Class I misdemeanor. Subsequent violations would be a Class IV felony.<\/p>\n

Blood said the bill would make Nebraskans safer during a time when technology is advancing too quickly for people to keep up. The bill would bring Nebraska in line with the 41 other states that have passed similar legislation, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis won\u2019t hamper the good things drones can do for us,\u201d Blood said, \u201cbut it will ensure that if someone is using one of these devices to intentionally harass anyone, they will be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sharing or distribution of video or images obtained through electronic means would be a Class IIA felony under the bill. If the defendant is 19 or older and the victim is less than 18, the defendant would be required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act.<\/p>\n

Any person who intentionally causes an electronic device\u2014including an unmanned aircraft\u2014to enter the property of another in order to secretly peep into the dwelling of another person would
\nbe guilty of a Class I misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

The bill would prohibit operation of an unmanned aircraft within a horizontal distance of 500 feet or a vertical distance of 300 feet above any penal institution. Operation of an unmanned aircraft carrying a deadly weapon also would be prohibited. Violation of these provisions would be a Class I misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class IV felony for any subsequent offense.<\/p>\n

The definition of interference with hunting, trapping, or fishing would be expanded to include using an unmanned aircraft to interfere with such activities. A person who engages in such interference would be charged with a Class III misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

Additionally, LB693 would create the additional following offenses:
\n\u2022 unmanned aircraft harassment by a registered sex offender\u2014a Class I misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class IV felony for a subsequent offense;
\n\u2022 first degree criminal trespass by unmanned aircraft\u2014a Class I misdemeanor;
\n\u2022 second degree criminal trespass by unmanned aircraft\u2014a Class III misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class II misdemeanor for a subsequent offense;
\n\u2022 flying an unmanned aircraft above a critical infrastructure facility or school\u2014a Class I misdemeanor;
\n\u2022 interference with a police cordon\u2014a Class II misdemeanor; and
\n\u2022 livestock harassment through the use of a motor vehicle, dog or unmanned aircraft\u2014a Class II misdemeanor or a Class I misdemeanor if the harassment causes serious injury or death to the animal.<\/p>\n

Duane Gangwish, representing the Nebraska Cattlemen Association, spoke in support of the measure. He said that livestock harassment can detrimentally impact the health of individual animals as well as entire herds.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmerging technologies hold the potential to revolutionize things affecting Nebraska agriculture,\u201d Gangwish said. \u201cHowever, these promising tools may cause significant harm to our animals when used with nefarious or reckless intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing the bill was Nathan Trail, representing the Consumer Technology Association. Federal regulations already in place would preempt and render statewide legislation unnecessary, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would contribute to a confusing patchwork of regulations across the country,\u201d Trail said. \u201cWe also already have current privacy and trespassing laws that would cover these issues in Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Poole, representing Oracle Aviation, also spoke in opposition to the measure. He said it would significantly hamper a growing industry in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral universities and colleges in Nebraska are building drone training programs in an effort to really make Nebraska a national leader in the commercial drone operation space,\u201d Poole said. \u201cThis bill would be a significant hindrance to that educational endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 23 on a bill that would regulate the use of unmanned aircraft systems in several areas of statute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-23434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-carol-blood"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/LB693Blood2-23-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23435,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434\/revisions\/23435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}