Michigan Laws 259.307 – Prohibited use of an unmanned aircraft system; exceptions; permit, license, order, or other decree; notice of state-owned or operated; consent; information exempt from freedom of information act;
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Terms Used In Michigan Laws 259.307
- Commission: means the Michigan aeronautics commission created by section 26 of the aeronautics code of the state of Michigan, 1945 PA 327, MCL 259. See Michigan Laws 259.303
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Department: means , unless expressly provided otherwise, the state transportation department. See Michigan Laws 259.303
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q
- Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 259.303
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
- Unmanned aircraft: means an aircraft flown by a remote pilot via a ground control system, or autonomously through use of an on-board computer, communication links, and any additional equipment that is necessary for the unmanned aircraft to operate safely. See Michigan Laws 259.303
- Unmanned aircraft system: means an unmanned aircraft and all of the associated support equipment, control station, data links, telemetry, communications, navigation equipment, and other equipment necessary to operate the unmanned aircraft. See Michigan Laws 259.303
(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (6), a department, agency, board, or commission of this state or a person under a contract with or acting at the direction or on behalf of a department, agency, board, or commission of this state shall not use an unmanned aircraft system to surveil, inspect, or gather evidence or collect information about a facility that is subject to a permit, license, or order issued by or a decree or other requirement governed by that department, agency, board, or commission unless any of the following apply:
(a) The owner or operator of the facility has given express consent for the use of an unmanned aircraft system for the purposes described in this subsection in a particular instance.
(b) The department, agency, board, commission, or person is acting under a valid search warrant and the use of the unmanned aircraft system is strictly limited to the subject matter and scope of that warrant.
(c) The department, agency, board, or commission has reason to believe that there may be an imminent threat to public health, safety, property, or the natural resources of the state from the facility and the use of the unmanned aircraft system is strictly limited to the investigation of that imminent threat.
(d) The department, agency, board, commission, or person is inspecting a roadway, highway, airport, airport approach corridor, port, or similar infrastructure.
(2) An unmanned aircraft system that is used as described in subsection (1) must be clearly marked as a state-owned or operated aircraft unless it is an unmanned aircraft system operated in accordance with subsection (3).
(3) For any use that is governed by subsection (1)(a), both of the following apply:
(a) Subject to subdivision (b), the consent of the owner or operator may be conditioned on the use of an unmanned aircraft system that is owned and operated by that owner or operator under, and in compliance with, Federal Aviation Administration regulations, authorizations, or exemptions. The department, agency, board, commission, or person under contract with or acting at the direction or on behalf of the department, agency, board, or commission shall allow, under its direct supervision, the use of the unmanned aircraft system by the owner or operator to conduct the surveillance, inspection, evidence gathering, or information collecting under this section, if doing so will gather information of a quality and nature sufficient for the intended purpose of the surveillance, inspection, evidence gathering, or information collection.
(b) If the owner or operator provides consent on the condition described in subdivision (a), or if the owner or operator withholds consent, the owner or operator shall provide to the department, agency, board, or commission a statement, in writing, that indicates the health and safety reasons for providing consent on the condition described in subdivision (a) or withholding consent.
(4) Any surveillance, inspection, evidence gathering, or information collecting conducted under subsection (1)(c) shall be under the direct supervision of the department, agency, board, or commission.
(5) Any data, including videos, photographic images, or geospatial data, collected by the operation of an unmanned aircraft system concerning a facility described in subsection (1) shall be furnished promptly to the facility’s owner or operator upon request and shall be rebuttably presumed to be not subject to disclosure under the freedom of information act, 1976 PA 442, MCL 15.231 to 15.246.
(6) This section does not apply to a law enforcement agency operating an unmanned aircraft system as part of a law enforcement investigation.