The Los Angeles Police Department is warning real estate agents not to use images of properties taken from unmanned aircraft, saying the flying drones pose a potential safety hazard and could violate federal aviation policy.
The warning was issued this week after officers saw a television news report showing a basketball-sized object with multiple rotors hovering over an expansive Westside residence.
"We are just trying to inform the public to ensure that before hiring these companies to operate these aircraft in federal airspace, that they are abiding by the federal regulations to ensure safety," said police Sgt. George Gonzalez.
Drones can range from as small as model airplanes built by hobbyists to as large as a commercial jet. Nationally, there has been an intense and growing debate about the safety of allowing drones to operate in airspace used by passenger aircraft.
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I knew the NDAA would bring about this kind of thing given the provisions, but this is ridiculous!
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The federal authorities has no regulation over uncontrolled airspace, which is where those
drones and helicopters are free to roam. The only places the drone operators have to watch
out for are near controlled airports, where classes B, C and D extend to the ground and at
uncontrolled airports Class E, which normally starts at 700 or 1200 feet, also comes down.
Under all those controlled spaces is Class G, where the FAA has no authority. At L.A. the
ceiling is probably down to 700 feet over most of the area because there are airports of
all the various classes nearby and it's easier to use the lower level than a mix of both.
The FAA has a regulation restricting unlicensed drones to 400 feet but that's all they
can do; so drones which stay under that level are legally untouchable unless they cause
an injury or property damage and the few drones with licenses are free to wander above
that line because they must have federally mandated navigation lights.
If the LAPD wants drones out of local airspace they are going to have to wait for the
city to issue a bylaw that explicitly controls drones flying below 400 feet over specific
and mapped areas of the city within it's corporate city limits. A blanket ban over all
of it would be difficult to enforce because the needed rationales would vary over
different parts of the city, opening holes a lawyer could drag battleships through.
As it is now, Gonzales' amateur lawyering has no basis in fact or law and all the FAA can
do is regulate the interstate sale of drones and usage in controlled airspace, not mere
possession or unregulated use. Federal licensing and inspection of privately built drones
is not a factor because there is no federal authority over something that is not bought or
sold across state lines and thus no justifiable influence over interstate commerce until
Congress passes a specific law to create the authority over that specific class of product.
California could do that if it wanted but L.A. couldn't because cities doesn't have that sort
of authority unless the state voluntarily gives it away, and I have never seen that happen.
Passenger aircraft are not permitted below 500 feet outside airports either,
so drones under 400 feet (that hundred foot separation is no coincidence)
are not a safety issue under federal law. Any helicopters sharing the same
space are required to watch out for themselves and cannot pass blame if
they manage to collide with anything at all.
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