The drumbeat of liberty and freedom continues to beat the loudest in Texas, as lawmakers there recently passed a bill that would outlaw the use of drones for surveillance.
According to the Houston Chronicle the bill, which has been passed by both the House and Senate, would also permit Texans to monitor the actions of law enforcement personnel, presumably with cell phones or other commonly used electronic devices.
The measure, House Bill 912, which was authored by Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell, would make it a Class C misdemeanor for most uses of a drone for surveillance of individuals without their prior consent. The legislation also punishes as a Class B misdemeanor any resultant distributing of images captured by the surveillance. Image distribution also carries a fine of up to $10,000.
‘Our legislative intent was to have law enforcement be able to use drones’
There are some exemptions, however, per the Chronicle:
House Bill 912 carries more than 40 exemptions, including one that permits members of the media to use drones to photograph and record breaking news activity. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, more than 30,000 unmanned aircraft are expected to be in use in the U.S. by 2020. It now heads to the governor’s desk for approval.
The bill’s sponsor in the Legislature’s upper chamber, Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, said before the Senate approved the bill 26-5 that one exemption would need further clarification. That exemption allows anyone who lives within 25 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border to use drones for surveillance, presumably to give landowners the ability to monitor their property for illegal alien and drug-running activities.
Estes says that’s not the case.
“Our legislative intent was to have law enforcement be able to use drones,” he said, according to the paper, adding that “we don’t want private citizens to be able to use drones at the border, either.”
