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Committee adopts amendment clarifying law-enforcement drone surveillance and public-records treatment
Summary
The Transportation Committee adopted an amendment to H.B. 251 clarifying when law-enforcement unmanned aerial vehicles may be used for surveillance without a warrant and how captured surveillance data is treated under public-records law.
The House Transportation Committee on Oct. 7 adopted an amendment to H.B. 251 clarifying limits on law‑enforcement use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance and the public‑records status of any captured footage.
Sponsor explanation said the amendment exempts law‑enforcement surveillance by UAV from a search‑warrant requirement when the UAV operates in navigable airspace in a physically non‑intrusive manner and is used to observe what is visible to the naked eye. “We specifically made a ‘when’ in there,” the sponsor said, emphasizing the change is intended to mirror what an officer could observe from similar altitude without specialized sensors.
The amendment also affixes existing public‑records law to surveillance data obtained by UAVs, referencing the committee discussion that Ohio Revised Code provisions (as cited in committee) generally make surveillance data public records unless a statutory exemption applies. Sponsors said many agencies that already use aerial systems publish or otherwise make captured video available to the public except where an exemption applies.
Committee members described the language as an attempt to balance public‑safety uses of aerial systems with privacy and records transparency. The amendment was adopted without objection and became part of the bill.
