What's happening
The bill prohibits law enforcement from using drones for surveillance at First Amendment-protected events and sets strict limits on drone data collection, storage, and use.
Why it matters
Protects privacy at public gatherings. By explicitly prohibiting law enforcement from using drones to monitor or collect data at concerts, protests, or any First Amendment-protected events, the bill seeks to prevent intimidation and the chilling of free speech and assembly.
Requires strong legal safeguards for drone surveillance. The bill mandates a search warrant based on probable cause for any law enforcement drone use not already prohibited, reinforcing judicial oversight and limiting warrantless surveillance.
Extends privacy rules to private and third-party drones. Law enforcement cannot bypass these restrictions by obtaining drone footage or data from private individuals, companies, or other agencies without a warrant, closing a potential loophole.
Limits data retention and use of advanced surveillance tools. The bill bans drones equipped with facial recognition or crowd-control weapons, requires most drone data to be destroyed within a year (unless tied to active investigations), and ensures transparency by making government drone data subject to public records requests with privacy safeguards.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Limit Police Drone Surveillance
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Print number 6435b
- Amend and recommit to codes
- Referred to codes
- Print number 6435a
- Amend and recommit to rules
- Referred to rules
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Limit Police Drone Use
In Assembly Committee · Governmental Operations · Sponsor Ron Kim
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6435--B
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 11, 2019
Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, COMRIE, GOUNARDES, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, LIU, MONTGOMERY, MYRIE, RIVERA, SALAZAR -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee on Codes in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to imposing limitations on the use of drones for law enforcement purposes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "protect our privacy (POP) act".
§ 2. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section 52-c to read as follows:
§ 52-c. Limitations on the use of drones; law enforcement purposes. 1. The use of drones to observe, monitor, document, record, investigate, or collect data by law enforcement at concerts, protests, demonstrations, or other actions protected by the first amendment to the United States Constitution or sections eight and nine of article one of the state constitution is prohibited.
2. People have a reasonable expectation of privacy and a constitutional right to be free from warrantless observation, monitoring, documentation, recording, or investigation by a drone. A search warrant, issued upon a finding of probable cause, shall be required for any use of drones for law enforcement purposes that is not specifically prohibited by subdivision one of this section. A search warrant cannot permit the use of drones for the purposeful or incidental observation, documentation, recording, investigation, or collection of data by law enforcement at concerts, protests, demonstrations, or other actions
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10012-07-0
S. 6435--B 2
protected by the first amendment to the United States Constitution or sections eight and nine of article one of the state constitution.
3. The use for law enforcement purposes of any drone owned, controlled, or maintained by a private company, private individual, or other government agency shall be subject to the provisions of subdivisions one and two of this section. A search warrant, issued upon a finding of probable cause, shall be required for law enforcement to obtain any data or information obtained by a drone that is owned, controlled, or maintained by a private company, private individual, or other government agency. A search warrant cannot authorize obtaining any data or information relating to the purposeful or incidental observation, documentation, recording, investigation, or collection of data at concerts, protests, demonstrations, or other actions protected by the first amendment to the United States Constitution or sections eight and nine of article one of the state constitution except in the investigation or prosecution for violations of subdivisions one or two of this section.
4. Law enforcement is prohibited from using drones equipped with facial recognition software or using facial recognition on video or images obtained or created by a drone, including videos or images obtained or created by drones owned, controlled, or maintained by a private company, a private individual, or other government agency. This section shall retroactively apply to videos or images obtained or created by drones prior to the effective date of this section.
5. Drones equipped with devices used for crowd control purposes or any lethal or non-lethal weapons are prohibited.
6. Data or information obtained by drones and within the control of any government agency or in the possession of a private company or individual on behalf of any government agency shall be subject to release under the freedom of information law, provided that all personal identifying information, except for that of law enforcement personnel acting within their official responsibilities or performing an official function, shall be redacted prior to such release.
7. All data or information obtained by the use of drones for law enforcement purposes that are not part of an ongoing criminal investigation or proceeding shall be destroyed in one year or less, absent a subpoena or court order. Data or information not destroyed in one year or less pursuant to a subpoena or court order and that is within the control of any government agency or in the possession of a private company or individual on behalf of any government agency shall be destroyed once the proceedings or investigations that the subpoena or court order related to have ended.
8. As used in this section:
a. "Drone" means an aerial vehicle or a balloon float or other device that can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely.
b. "Law enforcement" means a lawfully established state or local public agency that is responsible for the prevention and detection of crime, the enforcement of local government codes and the enforcement of penal, traffic, regulatory, game or controlled substance laws and includes an agent of the law enforcement agency.
c. "Search warrant" means a search warrant as defined in section 690.05 of the criminal procedure law.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to imposing limita- tions on the use of drones for law enforcement purposes
Purpose or general idea of bill
This legislation will impose limitations on the use of drones for law enforcement purposes.
Summary of provisions
Section 1: The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section 52-c. Section 2: This act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
In recent years, drones or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have entered civilian life. While drones are useful to regular people, corporations, and government agencies, they can also harm people's privacy if proper limits are not in place. Police surveillance of protests already produc- es a chilling effect amongst members of the public who want to voice their concerns over government abuse and social injustice. The continued use of drones in public spaces without a warrant will only further intensify the intimidation of the public and erode protected first amendment speech.
Law enforcement can use drones to access information where privacy would reasonably be expected (filming through a window, thermal imaging, etc.) for any alleged criminal activity and should require a warrant obtained from a judge. Any information or video obtained through this process should be made available to the public through a drone disclosure proc- ess.
This legislation mandates law enforcement and other government agencies to obtain a search warrant before deploying a drone. Also, it bans the indiscriminate use of drones at concerts, protests, demonstrations, and other actions protected by the first amendment. Additionally, this legislation prohibits drones from utilizing facial recognition technolo- gy, which has proven inaccurate and discriminatory in the targeting of black and brown communities.
Legislative history
New Bill
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None to the state.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.