Michigan bill would create statewide drone registry to bypass FAA

A bill moving through the Michigan legislature would create a statewide drone registry, managed by the state’s Department of Transportation, designed to provide state agencies and law enforcement better access critical information and improve public safety.

Known as “S.H.I.E.L.D. Michigan,” short for Securing Homeland and Infrastructure with Emerging Laws for Drones, the bill would also direct more funding for geofencing technology for law enforcement and prohibit drones from flying near certain facilities, like power plants, correctional institutions and law enforcement buildings. (Michigan already has a law prohibiting drones from invading personal privacy.)

State Rep. William Bruck, a Republican spearheading the legislation, said that drones present a grave threat to critical infrastructure and public gatherings in the the absence of comprehensive federal regulation.

“The bottom line is we’re 100% open to nefarious drone use in our state, and the fact is the feds are not moving,” Bruck said in a recent interview. “There’s such damage that can be done with not just one drone, but a swarm of drones, that could cripple our economy and hurt a lot of people at one time, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

While the Federal Aviation Administration operates a nationwide mandatory drone registry, Bruck said it’s often inaccessible to state and local agencies, which prevents critical information from being shared in a timely manner.

The FAA’s Remote ID rule requires each drone to bear a digital license plate to identify its origin. But Bruck also criticized the FAA for failing to distinguish between drones and manned aircraft, adding that the agency will “regulate drones, but not where drones cannot go.”

“We have the technology to say where that drone is being controlled from, and they can see the ID number, but sometimes it takes a very long time to actually get that information from that ID number from the FAA,” Bruck said. “MDOT aeronautics will have that registry internal to Michigan, where it’ll be accessible.”

The bill would also prohibit state and local agencies from purchasing or using drones with components made in countries flagged by the federal government as national security risks. Several other states, including Arkansas, Mississippi and Nevada, have implemented laws that restrict or ban government purchase of drones from adversarial nations, particularly China.

“That’s the reason why we as a state take the lead on this and do something to protect ourselves before a disaster comes,” Bruck said. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when, and I don’t want it to be in Michigan, and I don’t think Michiganders want it to be as well.”