Penal Law § 280.10 · Article 280. Offenses Relating to Unlawful Use of a Drone
Applicability and restrictions
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 280.10 Applicability and restrictions.
The provisions of this article shall not apply to the following persons or entities:
1. A toy drone operated solely for recreation, unless such toy drone is operated in a manner that would recklessly create a substantial risk of physical injury to another person or substantial risk of damage to property.
2. A recreational drone operated solely for hobby or recreational purposes and operates in compliance with all applicable federal laws, rules, regulations, authorizations, waivers, or exemptions and all other applicable state and local laws, rules, and regulations, unless such recreational drone is operated in a manner that recklessly creates a substantial risk of physical injury to another person or substantial risk of damage to property.
3. A drone operated for commercial, educational, agricultural, journalistic, infrastructure, or other lawful purposes in compliance with all applicable federal laws, rules, regulations, authorizations, waivers, or exemptions and all other applicable state and local laws, rules and regulations, unless such drone is operated in a manner that recklessly creates a substantial risk of physical injury to another person or substantial risk of damage to property.
4. A governmental employee, or a person acting on behalf of a state or local government entity, provided that such person or employee is acting in a manner consistent with such person's governmental duties.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN280.10
- Text hash
- sha256 d549560b487650284c119912c96a7db42b4cef0fcc86e5e1db4d82cefc678d8d
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.