The drone industry has had enormous growth over the last few years. The market value of drones in 2020 was $13.5 billion. Many experts believe that the drone market is still in a stage of infancy and that by the year 2025, the market will exceed $129 billion. The technology and the use cases for drones are ready, but there are still some issues blocking drones from reaching their full potential. The primary blockage is the need for government regulations to introduce drones safely into shared airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been working diligently to make amendments to regulations, opening up further possibilities for drone use. At the same time, two senators from Florida have been making progress in passing bills that would grant drone operators greater opportunities.

While the FAA is focusing on changing drone regulations on a broad basis, the senators are working to have bills for specific cases passed. The specifications would permit state organizations to use drones more widely. The first bill was introduced by Republican Senator Tom Wright on December 28, 2020, called SB44. Tom Wright became a resident of Florida in 2004. After incumbent Dorthy Hukill passed away from cervical cancer a month before elections, Tom was selected to replace her by a panel of six Republican officials. There was not a chance to reprint the ballots with Tom’s name in time for the election, so votes for Dorthy were counted in favor of Tom. He went on to win the election and became the Senator for Florida’s 14th district on November 6, 2018.

In his short time in office, Senator Wright has introduced and co-introduced many bills to be passed. SB44 is a bill he introduced with the purpose of “Expanding the authorized uses of drones by law enforcement agencies, by a state agency or political subdivision, or by certified fire department personnel for specified purposes, etc..” Like many police departments throughout the United States, Florida’s police have begun using drones. In Florida, laws only permit police to use drones under limited circumstances though. These circumstances provide for drones to be used in pursuit of escaped prisoners, in situations of imminent loss of life, or with a search warrant. With the passing of SB44, police and fire departments would be able to use drones for traffic management, crowd monitoring, evidence collection, flood, fire, and emergency surveying.

For an example of how Florida police are underusing drones, Senator Wright pointed out the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was fortunate enough to have more than 30 drones at their disposal. Rather than officers needing to await permission to use the drones, Wright envisions them being stored ready for use in officer vehicles. “When something goes down, a trunk can be popped and that drone can be deployed literally within a matter of a minute or two,” Wright said. “Whereas a helicopter, you’re looking at probably a response time of anywhere between 18 to 20 minutes before that piece of equipment is actually airborne.” Not to mention that using helicopters are an enormous strain on police budgets, whereas the drones are already in possession and were far less expensive to begin with.

Republican Senator, Manny Díaz, has been serving Florida’s 36th district since 2018, after previously serving three terms in the Florida House of Representatives beginning in 2012. He too has introduced and co-introduced many bills. His most recent bill, presented on January 11, 2021, is SB518. As stated on the bill’s documents, it aims to expand “the authorized uses of drones by a state agency or political subdivision to include the assessment of damage due to natural disasters, etc..” Speaking to the Senate Committee on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, Díaz said, “The bill is very carefully crafted and really designed to help the Department of Emergency Management survey damage from a natural disaster. It’s oftentimes hard to reach some of the damage especially in a wildfire, and even in hurricane. If you have blocked streets, loss of landmarks, it’s hard to get a far scope of the damage that has gone on.”

Current regulations prohibit agencies from using drones to inspect private property during or after a disaster. If someone is trapped in a home in a flood event, legally drones can not be used to get in and see if a rescue is needed. If a private home is damaged by a tree falling from a hurricane, drones can not be used to inspect without the homeowner’s consent. This bill will surpass the need for agencies to apply for and await approval before sending out a drone to assess natural disaster situations.

Senator Díaz’s bill was met with overwhelming approval. For the most part, so was Senator Wright’s bill. However, as it suggests freer use of drones for police activity, it did raise some concern from ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) representatives. As is often the case with police drone use, some fear that the drones could be used to encroach on civilian civil liberties. But, as Senator Wright made it abundantly clear, that is not the goal of SB44. He pointed out that with the districts’ limited access to helicopters, the same civil liberties could be called into question. He expressed his belief that police would use tools like helicopters and drones to aid and protect as opposed to the abuse of civil liberties. “This is not a bill intended to take anybody’s personal rights,” Senator Wright went on to say. If both bills are passed, which seems likely to happen, they will take effect July 1, 2021.

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