Are States Overstepping On Civil UAS?
by Jim Mathews
In nearly all the 50 U.S. states, lawmakers have taken aim at law-enforcement’s use, or potential use, of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). As of mid-July, the American Civil Liberties Union was tracking legislation proposed in 42 states, enacted in six states, and still active or pending in 27 states.
At least one leading researcher in the field is asking for a little time and a little space before clamping down on what he and others believe could put useful and non-threatening technology into the hands of small police departments across the country.
“Like most technologies it needs to mature a little bit before legislatures try to control it,” says Allan Frazier, an assistant professor in the University of North Dakota’s aerospace department who can claim not only a raft of FAA pilot ratings including air transport pilot, helicopters and gliders, but 33 years as a police officer and deputy sheriff in three states.
“If you start enacting laws now to control small UAS, it’s like telling the Wright Brothers they can’t do test flights at Kitty Hawk,” Frazier says. “We don’t know what we don’t know unless we’re able to utilize the technology.”
Frazier helps run a collaborative research project at UND involving the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Office and small UAS manufacturers Aerovironment and Draganfly. The team is making air vehicles available to agencies in a 16-county area of northeastern North Dakota free of charge, thanks to grant funding aimed at developing the concept of operations for UAS in civil airspace and in a law-enforcement and public safety setting, creating the right training curriculum for officers and pilots and evaluating how effective the systems are in actual police and public safety work.
