Orange County Grand Jury
• 2015-2016
• Agency Response
Response to:
Drones: Know Before You Fly 5/26/2016, 2086 KB
Subject: Responses to 2015-2016 Orange County Grand Jury Report "drones: Know Before You Fly." Dear Judge Margines: The*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 7 findings
F1
Recreational drones have greatly increased in number since December 2015 and it is probable their unregulated use will pose significant threats to public safety and privacy in Orange County cities and unincorporated areas. The respondent agrees in part and disagrees in part. The City agrees that the usage of recreational drones has increased over time. As to posing a significant threat, the City believes any threat to public safety is minimal and manageable at this time. The City's Police Department has received two calls regarding the usage of recreational drones in the last two years.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Each City Council should direct its City Attorney to provide a report to the city's police department and City Council on existing laws that can be applied to the use of recreational drones in the city's jurisdiction by December 30, 2016. The City of Los Alamitos will request its City Attorney to establish applicable regulations and provide a report to City Council concerning the use of recreational drones in the City's jurisdiction prior to December 30, 2016.
F2
With the exception of the recent Federal Aviation Administration registration rule, recreational drone owners are largely self-policed, which leads to a wide range of behavior. The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Each city should adopt a recreational drone ownership and operation ordinance with regulations similar to those found in Los Angeles City ordinance #318392, by March 31, 2017, to the extent not preempted or superseded by Federal law or Federal regulations. The recommendation has not yet been implemented, but will be considered by the Planning Commission and City Council in the future.
F3
Most of the cities and unincorporated areas of the County of Orange do not have a drone ordinance, nor do they have any immediate plans to enact an ordinance in the near future. The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Each city should inform its citizens about laws and ordinances that apply to recreational drone operators through print media, city-related web sites, social media sites and/or public forums by March 31, 2017. OC Grand Jury Report on Drones August 17, 2016 The recommendation has yet to be implemented but may be in the future. When an ordinance is considered and adopted by the City, the respondent will inform citizens about laws and ordinances that apply to recreational drone operators through print media, city-related web sites, and social media sites, but not through public forums as the City does not have staff resources to commit to monitoring public forums and participating in discussions in those non-City controlled forums.
F4
Most of the cities provide no educational programs for public awareness of the safety issues connected to recreational drones. The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Each city should establish and publish on its website a point of contact for drone-related citizen complaints by December 30, 2016. The City of Los Alamitos already has a web based complaint form for all complaints, regardless of the topic.
F5
Some Orange County cities, despite recognizing potential issues with drones, are awaiting drone-related legislative action or other guidance by the State of California or FAA before enacting local ordinances. The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Each city should post FAA drone ownership and operation education links on city-related websites, newsletters, and flyers by December 30, 2016. The recommendation has not yet been implemented but will be implemented prior to December 30, 2016.
F6
The FAA-required registration of recreational drones provides a useful tool for local enforcement of drone ordinances. The respondent agrees with the finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Orange County cities have not established a procedure for reporting drone incidents, which results in under-reporting of drone safety and privacy events. The respondent agrees with the finding. Grand Jury Recommendations
No recommendations for this finding
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.