BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 807|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 807
Author: Gaines (R), et al.
Amended: 8/18/16
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 3/29/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 37-0, 5/5/16
AYES: Allen, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, De
León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall, Hancock,
Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno,
Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach,
Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson, Runner, Vidak
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 8/22/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Unmanned aircraft systems
SOURCE: California Police Chiefs Association
League of California Cities
DIGEST: This bill seeks to provide local public entities and
public employees of local public entities with immunity from
civil liability for any damage to an unmanned aircraft or
unmanned aircraft system, if the damage was caused while the
local public entity and public employee of the local public
entity was providing, and the unmanned aircraft system was
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interfering with, the operation, support, or enabling of
specified emergency services. This bill applies the same
immunity protection for local public entities and public
employees of local public entities, above, to emergency
responders who are private entities or paid or unpaid
volunteers, if those emergency responders are acting within the
scope of authority implicitly or expressly provided by a local
public entity or public employee of a local public entity.
Assembly Amendments (1) narrow the bill to only apply to local
public entities and their employees and to those specified
emergency responders who are acting within the scope of
authority implicitly or expressly provided by a local public
entity or a public employee of a local public entity; (2)
specify that the bill's immunity for local public entities and
employees of public entities is in addition to any other
immunity provided to those entities and employees under law; and
(3) add a coauthor.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides, under the Civil Code, that besides the personal
rights mentioned or recognized in the Government Code, every
person has, subject to the qualifications and restrictions
provided by law, the right of protection from bodily restraint
or harm, from personal insult, from defamation, and from
injury to his personal relations.
2)Provides that every person is bound, without contract, to
abstain from injuring the person or property of another, or
infringing upon any of his or her rights.
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3)Provides that everyone is responsible, not only for the result
of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury to another
caused by his or her lack of ordinary care or skill in the
management of his or her property or person, except so far as
the latter has, willfully or from lack of ordinary care,
brought the injury upon himself or herself.
4)Specifies, under the Government Tort Claims Act (Act), rules
of civil liability that apply to public entities and public
employees in California. The Act generally provides that all
public entities, state and local, are liable in tort to the
extent declared by statute, subject to stated immunities and
defenses. Public employees are liable to the same extent as
private persons, subject to various immunities and defenses.
5)Defines a "public entity" to include the state, the Regents of
the University of California, the Trustees of the California
State University and the California State University, a
county, city, district, public authority, public agency, and
any other political subdivision or public corporation in the
state. Defines a "public employee" to mean an employee of a
public entity.
6)Governs the liability of public entities and public employees
with regard to fire protection. Provides, generally, that
neither a public agency nor public employee acting in the
scope of his employment is liable for any injury resulting
from the condition of fire protection or firefighting
equipment or facilities, or for any injury caused fighting
fires.
This bill:
1)Adds to the Act to provide that a local public entity or
public employee of a local public entity shall not be liable
for any damage to an unmanned aircraft or unmanned aircraft
system, if the damage was caused while the emergency responder
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was providing, and the unmanned aircraft system was
interfering with, the operation, support, or enabling of any
of the following emergency services:
Ambulance services, including, but not limited to, air
ambulance services;
Firefighting or firefighting-related services,
including, but not limited to, air services related to
firefighting or firefighting-related services; or
Search and rescue services, including, but not limited
to, air search and rescue services.
1)Adds to the Civil Code that an emergency responder shall not
be liable for any damage to an unmanned aircraft or unmanned
aircraft system, if the damage was caused while the emergency
responder was providing, and the unmanned aircraft system was
interfering with, the operation, support, or enabling of any
of the emergency services listed above.
2)Defines "emergency responder" for these purposes to include
either of the following, if acting within the scope of
authority implicitly or expressly provided by a local public
entity or a public employee of a local public entity, as
specified, to provide emergency services:
A paid or unpaid volunteer; or
A private entity.
1)Defines, among other things:
"Unmanned aircraft" to mean an aircraft that is operated
without the possibility of direct human intervention from
within or on the aircraft.
"Unmanned aircraft system" to mean an unmanned aircraft
and associated elements, including, but not limited to,
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communication links and the components that control the
unmanned aircraft that are required for the pilot in
command to operate safely and efficiently in the national
airspace system.
Background
As with most new technologies, the possibility of having
potentially thousands of commercial and private unmanned aerial
vehicles or "drones" take to California's skies in the coming
years has called into question how well state law is prepared to
incorporate these vehicles - and the policy issues associated
with their operation - into California's legal landscape. At
present, the commercial use of drones in the skies over
California is fairly restricted; however, the recreational or
hobbyist use of drones remains largely unregulated.
Of particular import to this bill are both the practical safety
considerations and the legal implications posed by drones and
their users when occupying the same space as emergency response
aircraft. To this end, news reports in the last year have
focused on instances where drones have interfered with the
ability of emergency responders to perform their jobs, such as
firefighting. As noted in a CNN article last August:
Of all the elements they must battle in a wildfire,
firefighters face a new foe: drones operated by enthusiasts
who presumably take close-up video of the disaster.
Five such "unmanned aircraft systems" prevented California
firefighters from dispatching helicopters with water buckets
for up to 20 minutes over a wildfire that roared Friday onto a
Los Angeles area freeway that leads to Las Vegas.
Helicopters couldn't drop water because five drones hovered
over the blaze, creating hazards in smoky winds for a deadly
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midair disaster, officials said. (Martinez, Vercammen &
Brumfield, Above spectacular wildfire on freeway rises new
scourge: drones, CNN (Jul. 19, 2015)
Page 7
public entities, public employees of local public entities, as
well as specified private entities, and paid and unpaid
volunteers) with immunity from civil liability for any damage to
an unmanned aircraft system, if the damage was caused while the
local public entity, public employee of a local public entity,
or other emergency responder was providing certain emergency
services and the unmanned aircraft system interfered with, the
operation, support, or enabling of those emergency services.
Comments
As stated by the author:
Throughout last year's drought-heightened fire season,
private- unauthorized drones repeatedly halted firefighting
efforts. The simple presence of these drones forced
firefighters to ground mission-critical tanker aircraft,
unnecessarily putting pilots, firefighters, civilians and
property at risk. Additionally, these rogue drones have
interfered with other lifesaving missions, such as air
ambulance services.
Senate Bill 807 will help ensure that emergency responders can
do their job of protecting the public without worrying about
frivolous lawsuits. As drones become more accessible to the
public, their presence in the sky is quickly increasing. It is
essential that lifesaving services provided by emergency
responders be free to continue despite someone's misplaced
desire to capture images for YouTube and the like.
[Specifically, c]urrent law does not provide explicit immunity
for emergency responders who damage a drone that is
interfering with the emergency services. This bill will
clearly state that there is civil immunity in these
situations. Impeding one tanker drop could be the difference
between life and death of an individual or the loss of an
entire neighborhood in flames. Senate Bill 807 is a critical
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piece of legislation to keep rogue drones from interfering
with the most effective response to time-sensitive crises.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/22/16)
California Police Chiefs Association (co-source)
League of California Cities (co-source)
Association of California Water Agencies
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California Ambulance Association
California Association of Code Enforcement Officers
California College and University Police Chiefs Association
California Fire Chiefs Association
California Forestry Association
California Narcotic Officers Association
California Professional Firefighters
California Special Districts Association
California State Association of Counties
California State Sheriffs' Association
California Statewide Law Enforcement Association
City of Burbank
City of Fountain Valley
City of Ontario
City of Thousand Oaks
Civil Justice Association of California
County of San Bernardino
CSAC Excess Insurance Authority
DJI Technology
East Bay Regional Park District
Fire Districts Association of California
LIUNA Local 792
Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, Local 3631
Riverside Sheriffs Association
Ventura Council of Governments
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OPPOSITION: (Verified8/22/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 8/22/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Melendez
Prepared by:Ronak Daylami / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
8/22/16 22:49:36
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