One drone operator understands the lawmakers’ concern, but said he thinks details in the bill are too arbitrary.

By Norah White

House lawmakers are discussing a new bill that would prohibit people from flying drones less than 100 feet above private property with the intent to conduct surveillance.

“Hovering over someone’s house technically qualifies as stalking,” Rep. Josie Leavitt, D-Grand Isle, one of the sponsors of the bill, H.284, said in an interview. 

The goal of the bill is to protect the privacy of homeowners, a concern Leavitt said came up recently in talks with constituents.

“This whole drone bill came about because a constituent reached out to both me and (Rep.) Michael Morgan, (R-West Milton), and said there’s a drone that hovers over my house when my daughter is sunbathing,” Leavitt said. 

The bill proposes to regulate drone usage over private property in two ways. The first is a blanket prohibition — you can’t fly a drone over a property for recreational purposes at an altitude of less than 100 feet without the consent of the owner.

The second: You would not be able to use a drone to record privately owned property with the intention of conducting surveillance — defined as observing someone with enough clarity to obtain info about their identity, habits, movements and more, or observing a property clearly enough to notice any unique, identifying features.

Therefore, even if a drone was over 100 feet above said property, it would still be illegal for someone to use the device to record that property or any person on it under the outline of the bill. 

Additionally, when someone buys a drone, sellers would be required to notify them about the restrictions.

Any violation of the law would result in a $50 fine for first-time offenses and a $250 fine for any subsequent offenses. 

Most drone owners in Vermont that Leavitt has encountered are respectful and courteous with their hobby, she said, and legislators aren’t looking to target them.

Steve Mermelstein, a photographer and founder of the drone services group Vermont Drone, said he understands the anxieties around drone usage.

“I get the concern a lot of people have with drones. There’s this perception that that thing flying over the backyard is spying on them,” Mermelstein said in an interview.

However, he believes the specifics in the bill are too arbitrary because, in his experience, no drone would be able to capture clear footage from anywhere near 100 feet above a property.

“They have to be within 20 to 30 feet to really make that person stop looking like an ant and be able to identify them, let alone really have a clear image of them,” Mermelstein said. “The drones that are available to consumers — and that will continue to be available to consumers for decades — just don’t have that zoom capability that you see on TV or you see in fiction,” he said. 

Still, legislators in support of the bill believe regulation is necessary to help homeowners feel safe.

Police have said it would be hard to regulate airspace, but that they wouldn’t have a problem regulating creepy behavior, Leavitt said. 

“The thing that’s most important about this bill is to just gently remind drone operators that they need to respect private property,” Leavitt said. 

The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.