The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard Sen. Koch’s SB 299 on offenses involving unmanned aerial vehicles. The bill amends the definition of “unmanned aerial vehicle” throughout the Indiana Code to specify that the term includes: (1) an unmanned aircraft and an unmanned aircraft system; and (2) a small unmanned aircraft and a small unmanned aircraft system, all as defined in federal law. The bill creates the following new criminal offenses involving the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle as Class A misdemeanors:
- sex offender unmanned aerial vehicle offense;
- public safety remote aerial interference;
- remote aerial voyeurism.;
- remote aerial harassment.
The bill provides that the offenses are Level 6 felonies if the accused person has a prior unrelated conviction for the same offense and also provides that it is not a defense to a prosecution for invasion of privacy that the accused person used or operated an unmanned aerial vehicle in committing the violation.
The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, the Indiana Academy of Model Aeronautics, and the Hoosier State Press Association testified in support of the bill, which was held over for the next meeting.
Read the bill at: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/bills/senate/299