Relates to prohibiting civilian drone use within 500 feet of a correctional facility except when in use under the Federal Aviation Administration's authorization.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
694--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. GALLIVAN, HELMING, O'MARA -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Crime
Victims, Crime and Correction -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the correction law, in relation to civilian drone use
near a correctional facility
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The correction law is amended by adding a new section 608
2 to read as follows:
3 § 608. Drone use around correctional facilities. 1. No person, in a
4 private capacity, shall operate a drone within five hundred feet of a
5 correctional facility or local correctional facility in this state.
6 2. As used in this section:
7 "Drone" means a powered or unpowered aerial vehicle or a balloon float
8 or other device that:
9 (a) does not carry a human operator;
10 (b) uses aerodynamic forces or gases to provide lift;
11 (c) can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely;
12 (d) can be expendable or recoverable;
13 (e) captures images of objects or people on the ground and in the air;
14 (f) intercepts communications on the ground and in the air; and/or
15 (g) can carry a lethal or non-lethal payload.
16 3. A violation of this section shall result in a civil penalty of five
17 hundred dollars for the first offense and for each subsequent offense.
18 4. This section shall not apply to the operation of a drone by any
19 person or entity that the federal aviation administration has authorized
20 to operate a drone for a commercial purpose, where the drone is operated
21 in a manner that complies with that authorization.
22 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00243-03-5
