Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/342119
need you to step back a few feet…" or "Sir, ma'am I need you to get out of the street and up onto the sidewalk so you don't get hit by a car," telling someone "Go away" is not a reason- able request. Neither is ordering someone to turn off the camera...and deleting images is a no-no. "We're constantly seeing time and time again settlements where it's costing municipalities substantial amounts," says Osterreicher. Schroyer adds, "I realize officers may not have received training on how to handle incidents involving small unmanned aircraft, so there is bound to be friction between drone journalists and law enforcement. My grandfather was an Illinois state trooper, and I know the job was tough enough back when drones weren't an issue. The FAA isn't going to have drone enforcement officers on the ground in every municipality all over the country to handle this, so law enforcement have to take on yet another responsibility." For the most part, journalists are present to observe, not interfere. Osterreicher's report for the Association of Unmanned Aerial Systems International (AUVSI) "Charting the Course for Use of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems in Newsgathering" called attention to a survey developed by NPPA to better understand how media and individual jour- nalists intend to use drones to gather news. Among other findings, the study revealed photographers rely on both video and photo to tell stories that inform and even bring social change. Seventy-two percent of journal- ists use sUAS to take moving images, while 55.9 percent use them to capture stills. "The technology has steadily evolved from Matthew Brady's cumbersome camera equipment and horse wagon- drawn darkroom which provided the first visual coverage of the Civil War, to small and sophisticated digital cameras employed to provide live high definition images from almost anywhere in the world," says Osterreicher. "Images shot from sUAS are but the natural progression of aerial flight and photography. The overall devastation in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire was shot by a resourceful photographer using 17 kites to lift his specially designed, but very heavy camera 2,000 feet over the city." UAVs provide a better, safer way to cover accidents, fires, natural disasters and sports. They also offer a unique perspective. One survey respondent stated: "Recently we had authorities burn down a house filled with explosives. A drone would have helped us get images of action going on at the scene and the fire itself." Uncertainty fuels costly delays Currently over a dozen states have passed legislation that restricts drone use. Virginia put a moratorium on the use of the technology by any state agency (running through 2015), and in April Wisconsin State Senate passed a bill restricting law enforcement drone use for surveillance, outlawing deployment of a drone capable of making video or audio recording in areas where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Many of the statutes that have either Circle 24 on Reader Service Card 908.852.3700 www.imt-government.com n Central Command Post n Mobile Command Vehicles n Squad Cars n Handheld Receivers n Airborne Repeat LET_18-23_Drones0714.indd 21 6/25/14 11:58 AM