Drone Operator Threatened with Jail for Helping Local Businesses Make Maps

Drones! In recent years, drones have captured the imagination of Americans. As of January 2021, there are over 1.7 million FAA-registered drones in the nation. And increasingly, drones are used not just for fun, but for innovation. Drone-photography companies have popped up across the nation, and many use cutting-edge technology to capture, create and process data. The services have been a boon for many industries: developers hire drones to monitor their property; construction companies hire them to examine progress on building sites; and real-estate agents hire them to capture vivid, comprehensive images.

https://ij.org/case/north-carolina-drones/

Increasingly, though, drone start-ups have found themselves on a collision course with a centuries-old profession: land surveyors. As most people would understand it, “surveying” involves establishing legal boundaries between tracts of land. But some surveying boards have taken a far more expansive view: they maintain that simply collecting and disseminating information about land (dimensions, shape, and size, for example) is the “practice of surveying” and unlawful without a full-blown land-surveyor license. This puts many small-business drone companies in direct violation of state laws.

Michael Jones learned this the hard way. He started a one-man drone operation in 2016, and his services included taking aerial photos of land and stitching them together into high-definition orthomosaic maps. He also used drones to capture other data for clients—for example, thermal maps for large buildings. At no point did he purport to mark the legal boundaries of property. Even so, he received a letter in 2018 from the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors. They were investigating his business for engaging in the unlicensed practice of land surveying. And the following summer, the Board formally warned him to stop “mapping.” Unless Michael “came into compliance,” the Board cautioned, he’d face civil and even criminal consequences.

Michael’s experience is far from unique; since 2018, North Carolina’s surveying board has cracked down on at least a half-dozen drone companies. Other states have behaved similarly, warning drone start-ups against disseminating even basic information about land.

Now, Michael is fighting back. He wants to use innovative technology to create and disseminate images and data. In other words, he wants to communicate information—speech. With the help of the Institute for Justice, he is suing North Carolina’s surveying board in federal court to vindicate his—and everyone’s—First Amendment right to generate and disseminate information. It is not the government’s place to squelch speech and entrepreneurial opportunity.
Donate to IJ: https://ij.org/support/give-now/