ND HB1373

Law enforcement agencies are prohibited from using unmanned aircraft for surveillance to gather evidence on persons or property without a court-issued warrant satisfying North Dakota constitutional requirements, with warrants limited to criminal investigations only.

Unmanned aircraft surveillance is permitted without a warrant only for national border patrol within 25 miles, exigent circumstances involving imminent danger to life or bodily harm, environmental or weather catastrophes, and testing or training of aircraft systems.

State agencies are completely prohibited from authorizing armed unmanned aircraft with lethal or nonlethal weapons, private surveillance without express consent, or surveillance of persons exercising constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.

Evidence obtained in violation of this Act is inadmissible in criminal prosecutions, and unlawfully collected surveillance data cannot be preserved by law enforcement unless required by court order, with lawfully obtained data subject to a 90-day retention limit unless related to criminal evidence.

All authorized unmanned aircraft surveillance must be documented with flight duration, path, mission objectives, and supervised personnel names, retained for five years, and made available to accused persons through subpoena and discovery proceedings; legislative management must study unmanned aircraft surveillance implications during 2013-14 interim.