Indiana law targets unauthorized drones amid farm safety concerns

Property owners received new privacy protections from drones this legislative session.

Language lawmakers added to House Bill 1249, labeled as “various criminal matters,” makes flying an unauthorized drone over someone else’s property without their consent a Class A misdemeanor.

Ryan Hoff, the Senior Director of Government Affairs for Indiana Farm Bureau said farmers lobbied for the protections after drones were spotted over their land in eastern Indiana last year.

“The farmers saw a lot of unauthorized drones, and the next week Avian Flu appeared in their chicken farms,” he said.

One farmer testified to the House that his daughter spotted a drone near their chicken barns spraying an unknown substance. She came into contact with the substance and became sick with a respiratory illness. The flock also contracted bird flu at the same time.

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Hoff said he expects more discussion about laws regulating the use of drones as the technology evolves.

“You wouldn’t walk onto someone else’s property without knowing that that’s trespass,” he said. “At what point is flying a drone over someone else’s property, also a trespass?”

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The bill language was originally part of a different piece of legislation that didn’t advance in the session.