Air and Rail Transport
Police drones would face new rules in Ohio
The bill sets limits on surveillance flights, requires agencies to keep flight data, and bars some systems tied to foreign adversaries.
Ohio lawmakers are putting new guardrails around how public agencies use drones. The bill also says flight and surveillance data can become part of the public record, with some case-related material kept for investigations and court use.
- Ohio would set new rules for public-agency drones.
- The bill also updates aviation law for vertiports, spaceports and landing fields.
- Aircraft would still mean a manned device, not an ultralight vehicle.
- Drone flight data could become part of the official record.
- Recorded votes show the bill cleared a floor vote.
Ohio lawmakers are folding two different ideas into one bill: requirements for the use and purchase of drones by law enforcement and other public entities, and a cleaner definition of what counts as aviation infrastructure. For residents, the first part is about how government can watch, record and collect data from the air. The second is about whether Ohio law keeps pace with the places aircraft now land, launch and connect.
The measure would also expressly incorporate additional aviation facilities into the state’s Aeronautics Law. That matters because the legal map is no longer limited to old-style runways and hangars.
The drone rules
The bill would establish requirements tied to the use and purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, by law enforcement and other public entities. It also lays out rules around drone surveillance, flight data and public records, turning a drone flight into something the state expects agencies to document and preserve.
It goes further by barring state funds from supporting UAV systems manufactured or assembled by a foreign adversary, and by preventing public entities from operating those systems if they were bought after the new cutoff. The draft also leaves room for exceptions where federal law or federal regulations allow continued purchase or operation.
A wider aviation map
On the aviation side, the bill broadens Ohio’s statutory language to explicitly include airports, seaplane bases, heliports, vertiports, spaceports, landing fields and other air navigation facilities. It also defines aircraft as any manned device used or intended for flight in the air, while excluding ultralight vehicles.
That definition does more than tidy up terminology. By naming vertiports and spaceports, the bill gives state law a vocabulary for newer facilities that already sit inside the broader aviation conversation, even if they do not look much like the airport most people know.
The paper trail behind each flight
The bill would require law enforcement agencies to document flight data for each surveillance flight and keep surveillance or flight data tied to ongoing investigations, trials or litigation until it is no longer needed. If drone evidence is used in a criminal case, a defendant could get related information through subpoena and discovery, though technical and security-sensitive operational details would stay protected.
Recorded votes show the bill cleared a floor vote.