WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Rep. Morris’ attempt to protect personal privacy from airborne voyeurs making news — again

Last February, the House gave an overwhelmingly bipartisan thumbs-up to Rep. Jeff Morris’ HB 2178, a bill that would have made it a crime to invade an individual’s presumably private space with camera-equipped airborne drones.  Buoyed by that 92-6 House vote and widespread public support, the bill sailed over to the Republican-controlled Senate for consideration . . . and like so many other House bills, became a victim of that chamber’s inaction.

Fast-forward a few months, and HB 2178 is back in the news.  Seems a downtown Seattle apartment resident looked out her 26th-floor window on a sunny Sunday morning in late June and came face-to-face with just such a camera-equipped drone, 300 feet above the pavement.  The drone’s operators landed the device and made a clean getaway, so it’s uncertain just what they were doing.  A safety inspection of a nearby construction crane?  An innocent test flight?  Or, as the frightened resident feared, something more sinister? [UPDATE:  According to subsequent news reports, the operators were taking photos for a real-estate developer.]

Not surprisingly, the story quickly made headlines, and interest in Morris’ bill — a measure he plans to reintroduce in January — spiked.  Two days after the mysterious airborne encounter, the 40th-district Democrat who chairs the House Technology & Economic Development Committee was interviewed by KOMO Newsradio.  You can listen to that interview right here:

 

And for a more in-depth look at the issue of unmanned aircraft, stay tuned for a documentary currently being produced by TVW.  Morris was recently interviewed at length for the program by TVW’s Christina Salerno.