Introduced Version
House Bill 2997 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2997
(By Delegates Frich, Householder, Howell, Kump,
Ellem, Sobonya, Border and Butler)
[Introduced March 20, 2013; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §1-7-1, §1-7-2, §1-7-
3, §1-7-4, §1-7-5, §1-7-6 and §1-7-7, all relating to
prohibiting the use of unmanned aircraft; providing
exceptions; requiring documentation when an unmanned aircraft
is used; providing remedies; prohibiting the use of certain
evidence and preservation of collected data; establishing
exceptions; and defining terms.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §1-7-1, §1-7-2, §1-7-3,
§1-7-4, §1-7-5, §1-7-6 and §1-7-7, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM.
§1-7-1. Definitions.
_____For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:
_____"Law-enforcement agency" means a person authorized by law, or funded by the state, to investigate or prosecute offenses against
the state.
_____"Unmanned aircraft" means any aircraft that is operated
without the possibility of direct human intervention within or on
the aircraft.
_____"Unmanned aircraft system" means an unmanned aircraft and
associated elements, including communication links and the
components that control the unmanned aircraft, which are required
for the pilot in command to operate safely and efficiently in state
airspace.
§1-7-2. Prohibited use of unmanned aircraft system.
_____(a) Except as otherwise provided in this article, a law-
enforcement agency may not use an unmanned aircraft for
surveillance of a person within the state or for the surveillance
of personal or business property located within the borders of the
state to gather evidence or other information pertaining to
criminal conduct, or conduct in violation of a statute or
regulation except to the extent authorized in a warrant issued by
a court which satisfies the requirements of the Constitution of
West Virginia.
_____(b) Warrants to conduct surveillance with an unmanned aircraft
may only be issued in a criminal investigation.
§1-7-3. Exceptions.
_____(a) The use of an unmanned aircraft by a law-enforcement agency is permitted when exigent circumstances exist. For the
purposes of this subsection, exigent circumstances exist when a
law-enforcement agency possesses reasonable suspicion that absent
swift preventative action, there is an imminent danger to life or
bodily harm.
_____(b) The use of an unmanned aircraft by state authorities is
permitted to preserve public safety, protect property, survey
environmental damage to determine if a state of emergency should be
declared, or to conduct surveillance for the assessment and
evaluation of environmental or weather-related damage, erosion,
flood or contamination.
§1-7-4. Prohibited surveillance.
_____(a) A state agency may not authorize the use, including grant
a permit to use, of an unmanned aircraft while armed with any
lethal or nonlethal weapons, including firearms, pepper spray, bean
bag guns, mace, and sound-based weapons.
_____(b) A state agency may not authorize the use, including
granting a permit to use, of an unmanned aircraft to permit any
private person to conduct surveillance on any other private person.
_____(c) A state agency may not authorize the use, including
granting a permit to use, of an unmanned aircraft for the purpose
of the surveillance of persons engaged in the lawful exercise of
the constitutional right of freedom of speech and freedom of
assembly.
§1-7-5. Remedies.
_____An aggrieved party may file a civil action and seek all
appropriate relief to prevent or remedy a violation of this
article.
§1-7-6. Use of evidence prohibited; data may not be preserved;
__exceptions.
_(a) Evidence obtained or collected in violation of this
article is not admissible as evidence in a criminal prosecution,
including use during trial, at sentencing, before a grand jury, as
rebuttal evidence, or during administrative hearings in any court
of law in the state.
_(b) Any imaging or other forms of observational data gathered
by unmanned aircraft surveillance from or concerning the parties or
places subjected to surveillance in violation of this article may
not be preserved by law-enforcement or government agencies for any
purpose unless required by a court of law.
_(c) Any imaging or any other forms of data lawfully obtained
under this article for which there is not a reasonable and
articulable suspicion that those images or data contain evidence of
a crime, or are relevant to an ongoing investigation or trial, may
not be retained for more than ninety days, unless the retention is
attendant to general agency guidelines regarding the retention of
evidence in criminal cases. In those cases, the imaging or other data may not be distributed to agencies, entities, or individuals
if the distribution is not necessary to meet general agency
guidelines regarding the retention of evidence in criminal cases.
_(d) An unmanned aircraft may not conduct any type of
surveillance that would violate state laws regarding the
interception of aural communications, electronic messaging,
personal location data, or acquire video or still images of a
person within a home or place without first obtaining all required
warrants in compliance with state statutes relevant to the
interception of such voice communications, digital communications,
physical surveillance data, or to capture the still or video images
of a person or interior or a place for which a search warrant is
prerequisite to its lawful search.
§1-7-7. Documentation of unmanned aircraft surveillance.
_(a) The person or agency authorized to conduct the
surveillance under this article shall document all use of unmanned
aircraft for surveillance. The person shall document all
surveillance flights as to duration, flight path, and mission
objectives, including the names of place or persons authorized to
be subject to surveillance.
_(b) The flight information must be certified as accurate and
complete by the supervising person authorized by a court to conduct
the surveillance.
_(c) The flight information required under this section must be retained for five years.
_(d) Except for the operational capabilities of the unmanned
aircraft system and other operational information strictly related
to the technical conduct and physical security of the surveillance
operation, a person accused of a crime that includes evidence
gathered through the use of unmanned aircraft system surveillance
may obtain all information relating to the person acquired in the
course of the surveillance through subpoena and discovery
proceedings available in criminal proceedings.
_(e) The documentation required by this section applies to all
uses of unmanned aircraft systems, including testing, training,
education and research.
__________NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the use of
unmanned aircraft. The bill provides exceptions and requires
documentation when an unmanned aircraft is used. The bill provides
remedies. The bill prohibits the use of certain evidence and the
preservation of data, and establishes exceptions. The bill defines
terms.
This article is new; therefore, it has been completely
underscored.