Prince William leaders don’t want county employees using drones to spy on people

On Tuesday, the Board of County Supervisors ordered a new policy meant to govern the use of small aircraft, commonly used for photography, to be reworked.

Board Chairman At-large Corey Stewart and others feared that a county employee using a drone could inadvertently capture footage of a zoning violation, submit the video to the zoning department for review, and land the property owner in hot water.

Currently, county code enforcement employees don’t use drones. Neither does the police department.

However, the county owns two drones. One is used by the county’s communications department and used to shoot video at events, like this year’s ribbon-cutting at the newly dredged Hampton’s Landing Marina in Woodbridge.

County officials stressed to the Board that, even if the county did receive a video of a zoning violation, the video would not be admissible in court, and that the county would need to produce its own video footage in order to cite someone for a violation.

“If [a county] agency needs a drone, by all means, we want to put that tool in front of them,” said Martino. “We are very aware of the privacy concerns on this issue.”

Here’s a PDF copy of the draft drone policy that’s now being reworked.