Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 46. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

CHAPTER 5. SEARCH AND SEIZURE

Part 1. Legality and Admissibility

Limitations On Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

46-5-109. Limitations on unmanned aerial vehicles. (1) In any prosecution or proceeding within the state of Montana, information from an unmanned aerial vehicle is not admissible as evidence unless the information was obtained:

(a) pursuant to the authority of a search warrant;

(b) in accordance with judicially recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement; or

(c) during the investigation of a motor vehicle crash scene that occurs on or involves a public roadway.

(2) Information obtained from the operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle may not be used in an affidavit of probable cause in an effort to obtain a search warrant unless the information was obtained under the circumstances described in subsection (1)(a), (1)(b), or (1)(c).

(3) For the purposes of this section, "unmanned aerial vehicle" means an aircraft that is operated without direct human intervention from on or within the aircraft. The term does not include satellites.

History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 377, L. 2013; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 178, L. 2019.