Bill Description: House Bill 499 would define restricted airspace around correctional facilities and criminalize flying a drone in restricted airspace, even unknowingly.
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Does it directly or indirectly create or increase penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes? Conversely, does it eliminate or decrease penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes?
House Bill 499 would Section 20-251, Idaho Code, to declare “the airspace over a department of correction facility” as “restricted airspace” in which unmanned aircraft systems (drones) may not fly; give the Department of Correction and law enforcement officers authority to detect, track, identify, intercept, disable, and capture drones operating “in proximity to restricted airspace”; and criminalize the “use of an unmanned aircraft system within the proximity of the restricted airspace of a correctional facility.”
The bill defines “proximity” as “within two (2) nautical miles from the farthest defined perimeter of a correctional facility.”
Concerningly, the bill would impose a mandatory minimum penalty of a $2,000 fine on a drone operator for violating this statute and allow for fines of up to $5,000 and up to one year of incarceration.
Additionally troubling is that the bill says, “Lack of knowledge that the prohibited act occurred within the proximity of the restricted airspace of the correctional facility shall not be a defense.”
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