The Customs & Border Patrol agency want to equip drones with non-lethal weapons in the U.S.

North Carolina has a 2 year moratorium on drones but still allows some:

Raleigh, N.C. - A little-noted provision in North Carolina’s budget prohibits police and other government agencies from buying surveillance drones for the next two years, as state lawmakers study the balance between security and privacy.

While that should sideline plans for many agencies that would like to deploy an economical eye in the sky, exceptions are allowed and the state Department of Transportation expects it will receive one to get a drone research field off the ground in rural Hyde County.

These aren’t the airplane-sized drones that the U.S. military and intelligence services have used to seek out and kill alleged terrorists with laser-guided missiles. Instead, they are oversized model planes fitted with cameras, thermal-imaging units and global-positioning systems and often launched by hand. They can be cheaper than a helicopter to operate, so law enforcement agencies are increasingly thinking about using them over U.S. soil. But privacy concerns have brought together liberals concerned about individual freedom with tea partiers suspicious about government in urging restraint when it comes to drones.

Under the state budget law, no state or local governmental entity may buy or operate a drone “or disclose personal information about any person acquired through the operation of an unmanned aircraft system” before July 2015, unless the state’s chief information officer decides it’s needed.

The delay is to allow time to study worries that police departments were going to start buying unmanned aerial vehicles and they’d have round-the-clock ability to track the public, said Rep. Jason Saine, a top House budget-writer on information technology matters.

“Knowing that it’s a hot-button issue, I just felt like it was best that we study the issue,” said Saine, R-Lincoln.

More than 30 states were considering regulatory action on domestic drones amid concerns that they would be used to spy on Americans, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In April, Virginia became the first state to pass a law restricting drones with a two-year moratorium on police use except in emergencies, the NCSL said. Idaho passed a law stating police must get probable cause warrants before using surveillance drones and prohibits anyone from using a drone to photograph private property without the owner’s written permission. Florida, Montana, Tennessee, Oregon, and Texas also passed laws this year limiting drone use or the evidence police could gather with them, the group said.

The FBI has said drones allow the FBI to learn critical information that otherwise would be difficult to obtain without introducing serious risk to law enforcement personnel.
http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2013/08/05/nc-law-grounds-surveillance-drones-but-not-all/

Drone Patrol App:

The Sleuth Journal, in association with Staticwave Studio has just launched a new site called Drone Patrol where you can report drone sightings and read others’ encounters of their sightings. Like the MUFON for drones, it allows you to add images, video and location, as well as details of your sighting.

Drone Patrol is the only site of its kind, so please help us spread awareness. Tell your friends and family to join in so we can build a data-set and map out where these sightings are witnessed. This data set will allow our team to share this important information with you - our visitors - so that you can find out more about what the government is doing in a town near you.


If you’re interested in keeping up to date with all drone activity, you can also go to the Drone Patrol Facebook page and read about drone articles, talk to others who have witnessed these aerial intruders, as well as check on updates. Please visit and “Like.”

You can also get the Drone Patrol Mobile Apps:

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andromo.dev133621.app222630

iPhone:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleuth-journals-drone-patrol/id677856624?ls=1&mt=8