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| Phantom 2 with a GoPro HD camera targeted by LA politicians |
Los Angeles, CA—City Council
Members Tom LaBonge, and Mitchell Englander have moved forward with a request
for recommendations from the LAPD and other agencies on restricting
or otherwise banning civilian drones.
This is only the first step. We will have to
wait and see what develops and deal with any ordinance/s that they
propose.
Once they have a proposed
ordinance it must negotiate the legislative process that includes public
comment.
We are certainly free to begin
contacting members of the City Council now letting them know that the existing
laws and FAA regulations are more than adequate to deal with any issues of
public safety and privacy.
We need to let them know that
any knee jerk reaction to media hype may seriously infringe on 1st Amendment
rights. News organizations, videographers, photographers, filmmakers have a right to gather and display their images.
Any “Chicken Little” fears of
our multi-rotor camera drones are unfounded and without merit. The fact is that
the multi-rotor drones are in civilian hands worldwide by the hundreds of
thousands. To date there’s never been a death or serious injury reported anywhere.
Feel free to respectfully and
politely contact the city council members and ask them to abandon efforts to ban or restrict our drones. The benefits of this technology for the
people of Los Angeles far outweigh any harm.
They have already created a
law to prevent drone abuse to celebrities by stalking paparazzi photographers.
The council members really
need to move slowly and intelligently as they watch how this new technology
progresses. Exploiting ignorance and
the unknown is never good public policy.
The Council’s contact
directory is right here:
Here is a copy of the three page request
for recommendations by the Council.
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