Gail Alexan­der

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry, which has re­ceived com­plaints since 2014 from the pub­lic about the use of un­manned aer­i­al sys­tems–drones–in­vad­ing their pri­va­cy, has ad­vised na­tion­als and vis­i­tors against the use of drones.

The min­istry, in a state­ment yes­ter­day, con­firmed the sit­u­a­tion.

It was al­so con­firmed that some cit­i­zens had ex­pressed con­cerns that drones might be used by un­scrupu­lous in­di­vid­u­als to "scope out" premis­es for fu­ture theft.

The min­istry said drones were be­ing used in a man­ner that could cause dan­ger to peo­ple and prop­er­ty and might in­vade peo­ple's pri­va­cy.

Min­istry spokesman Mar­cia Hope said, "We have had a se­ries of com­plaints from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers dat­ing back to 2014 when the is­sue of drones first came on­to the na­tion­al spot­light. Those com­plaints have in­creased in fre­quen­cy dur­ing 2015 to date."

She said com­plaints have been re­ceived most­ly from the Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do and west­ern ar­eas of Trinidad where the use of drones was more pro­lif­ic.

Both pri­vate cit­i­zens and busi­ness­es have com­plained about them.

"Pri­vate cit­i­zens have com­plained when their pri­va­cy is in­vad­ed or threat­ened and busi­ness­es when drone op­er­a­tors film ac­tiv­i­ties, print and/or sell footage and im­ages to busi­ness com­peti­tors, thus de­priv­ing them of rev­enue," she added.

Asked if any ar­eas were bur­glarised af­ter drones were re­port­ed fly­ing over­head, Hope said, "There is no ev­i­dence to ei­ther prove or dis­prove that.

"(But) mem­bers of the pub­lic have ex­pressed fears that drones may be used to 'scope out places for theft, etc. As re­cent­ly as last week, one was ob­served fly­ing close to the home of an in­di­vid­ual who called the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre and lodged a re­port."

The min­istry not­ed that a drone could fly for as long as four hours at a time and up to an al­ti­tude in ex­cess of 4,000 feet.

Asked if any­one had re­fused to stop fly­ing it when asked to do so, Hope said the iden­ti­ty of the op­er­a­tor was some­times not known as drones could be op­er­at­ed re­mote­ly from a se­cure lo­ca­tion out of view.

Hope said the min­is­ter in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Au­thor­i­ty of T&T was hold­ing meet­ings and dis­cus­sions with stake­hold­ers to for­mu­late a na­tion­al pol­i­cy to reg­u­late the use of drones with­in T&T.

In the in­ter­im the min­istry and Civ­il Avi­a­tion Au­thor­i­ty (TTCAA) were call­ing on every­one own­ing or op­er­at­ing a drone to vis­it the TTCAA to have the drones reg­is­tered.

The min­istry has urged all mem­bers of the pub­lic, in­clud­ing vis­i­tors, to ex­er­cise cau­tion and avoid op­er­at­ing such de­vices over pub­lic build­ings and spaces.

It was al­so not­ed that in keep­ing with the T&T Civ­il Avi­a­tion Act, there were cer­tain ar­eas which were des­ig­nat­ed as no-fly zones.

The pub­lic is be­ing en­cour­aged to avoid op­er­at­ing drones in those ar­eas as they may cause harm and in­jury to au­tho­rised users with­in the zones. The no-fly zones would be pub­lished in the me­dia, the min­istry stat­ed.

In keep­ing with cur­rent arrange­ments to ad­dress this is­sue, the pub­lic is be­ing asked to halt op­er­at­ing drones in any open air func­tion/mass pub­lic gath­er­ing and not to fly drones at a height greater than 121 me­tres or 400 feet above the ground.

Al­so, drones should not be op­er­at­ed in a man­ner that may en­dan­ger peo­ple or prop­er­ty gen­er­al­ly.

The min­istry stat­ed that drones should not be op­er­at­ed with­in five kilo­me­tres from any manned air­craft op­er­a­tions in­clud­ing the bound­ary of the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al and Arthur NR Robin­son Air­ports.

The min­istry al­so ad­vised peo­ple not to shine laser lights dur­ing air­craft land­ing or tak­ing off. Any­one caught do­ing this will be ar­rest­ed and may be pros­e­cut­ed in the courts.