So I just went on a call where a gentleman voiced his concerns over his neighbor flying a drone over his construction equipment, which is surrounded by an 8 ft tall privacy fence.

Now to my knowledge there are no rules regulating drones flying under 500 ft AGL save for commerical use. My question is this...what can we as a individual do in regards to privacy? What if the drone was watching a wife sun bathe and or hovering outside of your house by the window or glass door? Obviously if we shoot it, capture it, etc we can be charged for destroying someone's property but what is protecting us?

I am crossposting in GD for the lulz and Brothers of the shield but wanted specific input from the local crew.

The only instance I know of where this situation has gone to legal proceedings was when that father in KY shot the drone down spying on his daughter sun tanning. In that case the court decided with the dad that shot the drone down. I don't know if anything similar has happened yet in MS so we will just have to wait and see until the precedent is set. With the popularity of drones growing I don't think it will take long before a similar turn of events unfolds here.

My personal opinion: If someone were flying over my house on occasion and not really loitering about, I wouldn't care. If it was hovering over my backyard on a weekly basis that shit would stop post haste.

Well this particular call has a back story (go figure) and it is pretty typical for the area. "My neighbor is an asshole and doing it to trigger me". Granted the guy was venting, just inquiring. And I understand that drones dont have the greatest camera. But this really got me thinking about other situations. I guess until laws are put into play it'll be kinda similar to dogs...if you feel threatened then you have the right to defend yourself. Then hope for a reasonable judge.

On a side note I have been considering getting one to use at work. Would help greatly in seeing stolen items are vehicles of interest behind a suspected house or whatnot. Wonder how that would go over with the judge. "Well sir I need a warrant bc I saw the stolen item from the air. Well sir I was flying my drone." Oooooor, would seeing it with a drone being probable cause enough to enter the property without a warrant? Maybe I'll let someone be the example.

What part of the state are you in? I know DeSoto county has some drones, think they are used for SAR though. Hell one of the supervisors has his drone license or whatever it's called

Forrest County

That is a big growing area in the law.  I will see if I have any stuff from the last CLE that I attended, but as I recall there are no cases yet in MS.

You most likely need a license under 107 to use a UAS for official purposes. Also be aware that many cities have lots of class C airspace that requires notifying the tower prior to operation even if you stay under the 400'AGL required by the FAA for drones. MS also has a bunch of MTRs or military training routes, and those operating under VFR conditions may operate under 1200'AGL so you need to be mindful of those as well.

My guess is that the drone operator may not be registered with the FAA, and if his aircraft is over .55 pounds the local LE is the least of his worries compared to the FAA.

Also to my knowledge the only statute other than FAA regs concerning drones would be is 97-29-61, which is basically a peeping Tom statute.

This is all I have found as well. I didn't think about flight paths around military installations. We have 130s and such doing touch and goes all day

Yeah. If he is operating an unregistered drone over .55 pounds in airport airspace (usually within 5 miles) without tower clearance the FAA may be very interested, and feds typically have very little sense of humor when National Airspace is involved.

Southaven PD has at least one.  Last year there was a car wreck on Church Road and the driver took off running into the woods and those woods lead right into the new development behind my house.  My neighbor heard it on his scanner and called me.  Since there is a person of interest running around our area, we do the smart thing and stand outside looking.  As we are talking, there is a buzz that gets louder and louder.  We both noticed a drone checking the fenced in back yards and it was getting closer.  It stopped over us and we waved.  It then moved on to hover over the next few houses up the street.  In the end they found him hiding in the attic of a new construction house less than 100 yards from my house.  The K9 unit also found a large bag of drugs in the woods that he had run through.