Drones are proliferating at a surprising rate. They’re always a hot Christmas gift, and more and more people are taking little remote-controlled robots to the skies. The issue, of course, is that not every drone use is legal or smart. So, a Utah lawmaker wants to codify how they’re taken out of the sky.
David Lifferth, who proposed the Utah bill, does not want police officers firing guns at flying robots for giggles. Instead, the bill would only allow emergency personnel to disable or commandeer and land a drone during an “acute emergency,” defined as a massive, ongoing natural disaster like a brush fire or an earthquake. Also, the law specifies that the takedown has to be “in a manner that causes as little damage or destruction as possible… to the unmanned vehicle and other property.”
That said, unless Utah is a much stranger place than we’ve been led to believe, we doubt local authorities have drone-hunting eagles or net-wielding counterdrones. Although, if they can find the operator, they could just take the controls away and land the drone. Or do what our great park rangers do, and taser any sucker who doesn’t respect their authority. That said, though, if this law passes, it might only be a matter of time before somebody decides it’s drone season in Utah.
(Via PopSci)