Drones with cameras were spotted flying over SLO homes. What were they doing?
If you’ve seen drones in the sky near your property, there may be a good reason.
Over the course of the last week, San Luis Obispo residents took to social media site Nextdoor to express their displeasure with a drone that was sighted in several neighborhoods, including in some residents’ backyards.
Residents in the Flora Street, Ferrini Road and Anholm Park neighborhoods reported the drone on social media, often spotting the drone near power lines and utility poles.
San Luis Obispo resident Tony Martello, whose wife spotted the drone inspecting utility poles near the pair’s property in the city’s Railroad District, said seeing drones filming his property made him uncomfortable.
“If you’re in your backyard and you’re laying out the sun, you’re taking a swim, you’re doing yoga or the kids are playing, and all of a sudden the drone is right above you, it could cause anxiety,” Martello said. “It’s just a violation of boundaries and mental health.”
The Tribune looked into the matter to clarify what the drones were doing as part of its Reality Check series.
Why were drones flying over SLO homes?
Charter Communications communications director Danielle Dunne confirmed that the past weekend’s flights were scheduled and approved to carry out assessments of Charter’s phone, internet and television line hookups under state rules.
“Charter is currently mandated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decision D.21-10-019 to collect comprehensive attachment data on telephone poles owned by the five major utility companies,” Dunne told The Tribune. “To support this initiative, Charter has contracted Talon, which has secured all necessary FAA approvals to operate in California for this purpose.”
Dunne said the drones and footage collected will not be used for any purpose beside maintenance and repairs.
“Talon will utilize drone technology to conduct the data collection,” Dunne told The Tribune in an email. “The imagery and information gathered will focus solely on the telephone poles, attachments and associated wires. No other data will be collected.”
Still, several residents including Martello said they would have preferred to get a heads up before the drone came near their property.
“Let’s just say hypothetically, I received a letter in the mail from Charter or from Spectrum that said, ‘Specifically on this day, we will be analyzing the power lines with the use of drones between the hours of 11 a.m. or 1 p.m.,’ I don’t think I would have really cared,” Martello said. “Better to get approval or ask or notify, because the independent contractor could be seeing anything and everything in those yards, and that’s unethical.”
Is it legal to fly a drone near residential property?
While California has several laws in place that restrict where and when drones can operate, each city has slightly different rules.
Commercial drone operators such as the one spotted operating in San Luis Obispo over the weekend must respect California Civil Code Section 1708.8, which prohibits using drones to obtain images or recordings of people in private spaces, including their own homes, according to Federal Aviation Administration rules.
Flying a drone over someone else’s property may also be seen as trespassing if it interferes with the owner’s use of the property.
Drone operators must also follow all FAA rules, including weight and flight path rules that are designed to minimize potential harm to people and property near the drone’s flight path.
Locally, much of San Luis Obispo is also a no-fly zone for drones due to the city’s close proximity to the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, which controls most of the airspace in and around the city.
There are some exceptions for commercial flights, which can request exceptions to operate in airport airspace so long as the flight time and location is recorded, according to the FAA.
That said, it’s illegal to try to shoot down or destroy a drone that trespasses on private property, as doing so can pose additional safety risks.
