Orange County Grand Jury • 2015-2016 • Agency Response
Response to: Drones: Know Before You Fly 5/26/2016, 2086 KB

Drones: Know Before You Fly*

Published: July 26, 2016 7 pages
Ver PDF original

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F4, F5

Findings and Recommendations 4 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. Disagrees partially with this finding. Although, the County acknowledges that the Response: FAA required registration began in December 2015 and there were a number of people who registered small unmanned aircraft at that time, it is unclear what percentage were recreational versus commercial drones. Also, at this time, the County is unable to predict the future impact of recreational drones.
No recommendations for this finding
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. Disagrees partially with this finding. In addition to the FAA registration rule, there are Response: other laws that provide rules for operation of drones. Per the Grand Jury report, in addition to the registration requirement, the signing of AB 856 prevents individuals from flying drones over private property with the intent to "...capture any type of visual image, sound recording, or other physical impression of the plaintiff engaging in a private, personal, or familial activity and the invasion occurs in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person." Also, as referenced in the Grand Jury Report, existing penal codes state that the interference with emergency responders is a misdemeanor.
No recommendations for this finding
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. Disagrees partially with the finding. The County of Orange is unable to fully Response: respond to a finding that includes reference to the plans of the 34 cities within the County of Orange. Currently, the County of Orange does not have a specific drone ordinance and needs to research drone policies prior to moving forward with any consideration of an ordinance.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
The FAA-required registration of recreational drones provides a useful tool for local enforcement of drone ordinances. Response: Agrees with this finding. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESPONSES:
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The Orange County Board of Supervisors should direct County Counsel to provide a report to the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Department and the Board of Supervisors on existing laws that can be applied to the use of recreational drones in county-governed parks and unincorporated areas by December 30, 2016. (F.2., F.3., F.6.) Response: This recommendation will be implemented in the future. With regards to county- governed parks, research is required to determine if the County ordinance (Sec. 2-5- 42.) prohibiting radio controlled or other remotely operated model toy or similar device in parks, beaches and recreational areas sufficiently addresses the regulation of recreational drones. If directed, staff will work with the CEO and County Counsel to prepare the report for the Board of Supervisors within the required six months and report on the progress in the March 2017 Grand Jury follow-up.

* 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.