In drafting legislation to regulate the budding unmanned aerial vehicle industry, legislators nearly excluded all uses of the devices, except by law enforcement — the opposite of their intent.
Industry supporters and hobbyists — people who fly unmanned aircraft for fun — caught the mistake and flocked to the Capitol.
"I can agree, you know, with the concern for privacy, but at the same time … it’s not the machine’s fault," said Estin Ma, a 29-year-old electrical engineering student at Kapiolani Community College. "It’s people’s intentions — that’s the problem."
The original draft of Senate Bill 2608 proposes making it illegal for any "state or local public agency, person, or entity to use an unmanned aircraft to gather information, including but not limited to images, photographs, or recordings," except for law enforcement under certain terms, such as with a warrant.
The intent of the bill was to protect the public from surveillance unless criminal activity is suspected. Search and rescue and disaster relief missions would also be allowed.
"It’s easy legislation to pass because everybody can agree that, ‘Yeah, we want privacy,’" Steve Bunting of the Tennessee-based Remote Control Flight Leadership Initiative said after testifying before the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee last week. "The problem is when they get in a rush and they accidentally suck in hobbyists."
The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Honolulu Police Department and several other groups also opposed the bill.
"I understand the intent of this bill is to protect the privacy of the citizens of Hawaii, which the Honolulu Police Department supports," Maj. Richard Robinson, commander of the Criminal Investigations Division, told the committee. "But as currently written, the only people in the state of Hawaii who can have a UAV under this bill would be law enforcement, which means you’re preventing conservation, preventing survey of the forests, survey of the volcanoes, and placing peoples’ lives in danger."
Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee and a co-chairman of the newly formed Aerospace Caucus, said legislators introduced several bills this session in response to the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to use Hawaii as a test site for developing its own unmanned aerial system legislation. He said the Legislature didn’t intend for "hobbyists or others who are currently using (unmanned aerial systems) without any issues or problems … (to) be negatively impacted."
Larry Osborn, a member of the governor’s Aerospace Advisory Committee, told lawmakers the industry could bring in $190 million to Hawaii over the next decade.
"We don’t know where this technology is going to take us, and that’s why I want to caution you about passing legislation that tries to exactly delineate the purposes for which this can be used," he testified.
The committee passed the bill 6-0 Tuesday with assurances from Sen. Clayton Hee, the committee chairman, who introduced the measure, that the appropriate changes would be made to the second draft.
"It obviously is a work in progress," Hee said.
