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YOU ARE BEING WATCHED |
The reasonable expectation
of privacy.
Police are investigating an incident at a Berks
County 3
p.m. when investigators say it was suddenly struck by gunfire.
The story centers around a Berks County, PA hunting club and
their local self appointed wildlife Gestapo…a group calling itself SHARK
(Showing Animals Respect and Kindness).
By the group President’s own admission, they have driven the
owners/users of the property well inland, so to speak.
"The pigeon shooters are basically going into
hiding," said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. "So they're using a
ring that's up a hill and completely surrounded by trees. So the only way you
can get to it is through the air."
The case raises some interesting questions in an undoubtedly
murky area of the law. The title here “From
Heaven to Hell” comes from an article in the Atlantic on
the same subject. The original common
law position on property rights was “ad coelum et ad inferos” or “to the heavens
and hell”
No matter your opinion on shooting pigeons let out of a box,
this case has the potential to impact all of us. If I am tanning naked (god forbid) in the
privacy of my own backyard, is my neighbor committing trespass if he flies his radio-controlled
aircraft with an HD camera over my lot snapping pictures?
The advent of aeronautics pretty much wiped out the theory of “ad coelum et ad inferos” so we are left with the legal restrictions for aircraft (mind you, drones don’t necessarily fall in this category)…and the nearest thing that meets the described situation is:
FAA regulations in 14 CFR 91.119 Minimum
safe altitudes states:
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an
aircraft below the following altitudes:
b) “Over any congested area of a
city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an
altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest
obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.”
So if it were a Cessna and not a drone they could approach no closer than 2000 ft at a minimum altitude > 1000 ft ..
There are plenty of fourth amendment cases on which the
courts have ruled on the reasonable expectation of privacy, in your house, curtilage, and surrounding lands but the 4th amendment applies to the actions of the government, not other citizens.
So you have to ask yourself, what is your 'reasonable expectation of privacy'? I can put up security cameras that capture my property and may overlap yours... what if I put a camera on a pole on the fence line pointed at your pool?
If someone were flying a drone with a camera over my house in the middle of 100 wooded acres, I'd be inclined to shoot it down too.
