Legislation to criminalize the use of drones for harassment, voyeurism or facilitation of a burglary is on its way to the Kentucky House floor. The measure, sponsored by Bullitt County Representative Linda Belcher, won approval from the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Belcher says the impetus for this bill stemmed from an incident in her home county. “We had some ladies out at the pool and we had a drone fly over and we had a dad who shot it down," Belcher explained. "He was a good shot. He killed it. So, he is now known as the drone slayer."?
Lexington Representative Robert Benvenuti passed on the vote and said there’s uncertainty as to how federal law impacts this legislation. “We currently have voyeurism on the books. We have harassment on the books whether doing that through a drone or some other modality, it’s a punishable offense as it should be,” explained Benvenuti.
An effort by committee members to amend the measure to include provisions from other drone related bills was rejected. Northern Kentucky Representative Tom Kerr says legislation sponsored by Representative Diane St. Onge includes a prohibition for government surveillance of property where one has an expectation of privacy.
