Hawaii Drone Laws 2026: Trespass, Privacy & Warrants

Hawaii makes it a crime to fly a drone within 50 feet of someone's home to harass them, and a misdemeanor to use one to record a person in a private place, which rises to a class C felony only when the recording captures that person in a stage of undress or sexual activity. A separate 2024 chapter of the penal code adds felony offenses governing how a drone is flown and equipped. None of these statutes requires police to get a warrant first; that question is left to the state and federal constitutions.

This page covers Hawaii's drone-trespass statute, its general privacy statutes as they apply to drones, the 2024 misuse-of-uncrewed-aircraft offenses, the state of law-enforcement warrant requirements, and the federal ban on shooting down a drone. It does not cover FAA flight-operation rules like registration or Remote ID, which apply the same way nationwide. For camera-based surveillance generally, see Recording Law's surveillance camera laws guide; for how other states handle drones, see the Drone Laws hub.

Who regulates drones in Hawaii: the federal and state split

The FAA owns Hawaii's airspace: altitude, registration, commercial pilot certification under 14 CFR Part 107, and Remote ID. A federal district court made that division explicit when it struck down a Massachusetts city's own altitude and registration rules in Singer v. City of Newton, 284 F. Supp. 3d 125 (D. Mass. 2017). States retain authority over areas that the FAA guidance quoted in that case describes as traditionally related to state and local police power, such as privacy and trespass; the court also held, however, that a local rule restricting how a drone is flown (a visual-line-of-sight requirement) was preempted. Hawaii's legislature acted on that authority relatively recently, telling lawmakers in 2023 that "Hawaii's laws do not adequately address" drone-specific privacy and safety concerns before passing the state's first dedicated drone statute, enacted as HRS § 711-1114 and renumbered in 2024 as HRS § 711-1125, its current section number. It went considerably further the next year: Act 161, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024, added an entirely new Part II to chapter 711, HRS §§ 711-1120 to 711-1124, creating a set of felony offenses for the misuse of an uncrewed aircraft.

Can someone fly a drone over your property in Hawaii and film you?

Two statutes work together here, and neither one is limited to drones alone. HRS § 711-1125, Hawaii's trespass-with-an-unmanned-aircraft-system law (renumbered from § 711-1114 in 2024), makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally cause a drone to cross a property line and come within 50 feet of a dwelling either to coerce, intimidate, or harass another person, or, after the operator has been given actual notice to desist, for any other reason at all. The same section separately reaches a drone that takes off or lands in violation of current FAA special security instructions or uncrewed-aircraft security-sensitive airspace restrictions. It is a defense that the person with legal authority over the property consented to the flight, or that the operator was flying under federal authorization in an otherwise lawful, federally compliant manner.

Beyond the 50-foot trespass line, Hawaii's general privacy statutes apply to a drone the same way they would apply to a person with a handheld camera. HRS § 711-1111, violation of privacy in the second degree, makes it unlawful to install or use a device, including a drone, to observe, record, or broadcast someone in a private place without their consent. A private place is defined as somewhere a person may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion. A violation of HRS § 711-1111 is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Recording or disclosing images of someone nude or engaged in sexual activity is a separate, more serious offense under a different statute, discussed next.

That more serious conduct is separately covered by HRS § 711-1110.9, violation of privacy in the first degree, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. It reaches both the act of secretly recording someone nude or during sexual activity and the malicious disclosure of an intimate image without consent. Hawaii's Chapter 711 privacy crimes do not themselves create a civil right of action. A related statute, HRS § 803-48, gives a person whose wire, oral, or electronic communication was unlawfully accessed, intercepted, disclosed, or used a separate civil claim for statutory damages of at least $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees, but that remedy is scoped to communications interception, not drone photography or video by itself. A drone-surveillance victim outside that scope would more likely need to bring a common-law claim, such as intrusion upon seclusion.

Before Act 58 passed in 2023, Hawaii had no statute addressing this fact pattern directly. In August 2018, a drone hovered for an extended period outside a resident's window at Kukui Plaza in downtown Honolulu; the resident, who had a young child and often kept her windows open, called it "an invasion of privacy," and Honolulu Police Deputy Chief John McCarthy publicly acknowledged the conduct looked suspicious but said state law gave officers little to work with beyond ordinary trespass and voyeurism statutes. That gap is close to what the legislature cited five years later when it created § 711-1114, the provision now renumbered as § 711-1125.

Hawaii's 2024 drone-operation crimes: HRS §§ 711-1120 to 711-1124

Act 161, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024, added a new Part II to chapter 711, titled "Uncrewed Aircraft." It does not regulate what a drone records or how close it comes to a dwelling. It regulates how the aircraft itself is flown and equipped, and every graded offense in it is a felony.

Misuse of an uncrewed aircraft in the first degree, HRS § 711-1121, is a class A felony. It covers equipping or arming a drone with a firearm, explosive, electric gun, or weapon of mass destruction; possessing, receiving, transferring, operating, or producing a drone so equipped; discharging such a weapon using a drone; operating a drone so as to interfere with or disrupt the operation of a manned aircraft; using a drone to bring contraband, drugs, or dangerous instruments into a prison; and operating a drone so as to cause serious bodily injury.

Misuse of an uncrewed aircraft in the second degree, HRS § 711-1122, is a class B felony. It covers disabling a drone's required identification transmission or signaling, disabling or obscuring anti-collision lighting or failing to illuminate it as FAA rules require, operating a drone so as to cause substantial bodily injury, and damaging another person's property without consent in an amount exceeding $20,000.

Misuse of an uncrewed aircraft in the third degree, HRS § 711-1123, is a class C felony, and it is the provision most likely to reach an ordinary recreational flight gone wrong. It covers removing, obliterating, altering, or tampering with a drone's identification or registration number; operating a drone so as to obstruct, impair, or hinder a police officer, deputy sheriff, or fire department personnel; causing bodily injury; damaging another person's property without consent by more than $750; operating a drone while under the influence of an intoxicant; operating after a license, certificate, or privilege to operate has been revoked, suspended, or restricted; and using a drone in furtherance of a felony. The intoxication standard is borrowed from Hawaii's impaired-driving statute, HRS § 291E-1, with "uncrewed aircraft" substituted for "vehicle."

Each of those three sections exempts police officers, deputy sheriffs, corrections staff, and fire department personnel acting within the course and scope of their duties, along with anyone acting under the authority of or under contract with a federal, state, or county government. HRS § 711-1124 then overrides those exemptions on a single point: an uncrewed aircraft must be directly operated by a human operator at all times. That section states the requirement without assigning it a penalty grade of its own.

Does police need a warrant to fly a drone over your property in Hawaii?

Hawaii has not enacted a statute that specifically requires a warrant before a law enforcement agency uses a drone. A 2016 bill, SB 2347, would have created one, but it did not advance out of committee. Absent a dedicated statute, the baseline is ordinary constitutional search-and-seizure law: the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Hawaii Constitution, which Hawaii courts have at times read to protect privacy interests more broadly than federal case law does. Under that framework, police generally need a warrant based on probable cause before a drone flight rises to the level of a "search," such as hovering to observe inside the curtilage of a home, subject to recognized exceptions for emergencies, search and rescue, and similar exigent circumstances.

That statutory gap has become a live issue rather than an abstract one. In early 2026, the state Department of Law Enforcement proposed a Waikiki-specific drone-surveillance pilot, with a launch pad planned atop the Waikiki Grand Hotel and deployment targeted for as soon as March 2026. Members of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board and the ACLU of Hawaii raised concerns about that proposal, warning that continuous aerial monitoring without a dedicated statutory warrant requirement risks becoming, in the ACLU's words, "pervasive, suspicionless, mass aerial surveillance." That Waikiki-specific proposal has not been confirmed as launched. What did launch, on August 5, 2026, is a related but geographically separate program: the Honolulu Police Department, in partnership with the state Department of Law Enforcement, began a Drone as First Responder pilot covering two other Honolulu patrol districts, Downtown/Chinatown/Ala Moana/Kakaako and Kalihi/Iwilei, not Waikiki. A 2025 law, HB 550, lets drone video establish probable cause for an arrest in one narrow context, fireworks violations captured over public property, but does not create a general drone-warrant rule.

A niche restriction: drones and Hawaii's marine waters

Hawaii bans using a drone to fish. HRS § 188-23.5 makes it unlawful to possess or use a drone on, in, or near state marine waters for the purpose of taking aquatic life, unless the operator first obtains a permit from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; the statute allows a drone to be used for simple reconnaissance without a permit. A violation is a misdemeanor, and DLNR's Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement actively enforces it. In April 2025, officers arrested a Kihei man at Keawakapu Beach on Maui after finding him fishing with a drone and, in the course of that stop, discovered marijuana, hashish, and drug paraphernalia, adding narcotics charges to the drone-fishing citation.

Can you legally shoot down a drone over your Hawaii property?

No. Federal law makes it a serious felony to shoot down, disable, or otherwise damage any drone, anywhere, including over the shooter's own property, because the FAA controls the national airspace rather than the landowner below it. 18 U.S.C. § 32, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, criminalizes willfully damaging or destroying an "aircraft," a category the FAA has treated drones as falling into since 2012, and a conviction carries up to 20 years in federal prison. No state, including Hawaii, has passed a law giving a property owner the right to disable a drone as a matter of self-help; publicized cases from other states where local prosecutors dropped or reduced state charges after a shoot-down are not evidence that doing so is legal.

This article provides general legal information about Hawaii's drone-related laws as of mid-2026. It is not legal advice. For a specific dispute, consult a Hawaii attorney or the appropriate law enforcement agency.

More Hawaii Laws

• Hawaii Data Privacy Laws
• Hawaii GPS Tracking Laws
• Hawaii Police Bodycam Laws
• Hawaii Recording Laws
• Hawaii Smart Glasses Recording Laws

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my neighbor fly a drone close to my house in Hawaii?

Not if it comes within 50 feet of your dwelling to coerce, intimidate, or harass you, or if it does so after you have told the operator to stop. HRS § 711-1125 (renumbered from § 711-1114 in 2024) makes that a misdemeanor, regardless of the operator's reason for the flight after notice to desist has been given.

Is it illegal to use a drone to record someone in Hawaii?

Yes, if the person is in a private place and has not consented. HRS § 711-1111 makes that a misdemeanor, or a felony if the recording shows the person nude or engaged in sexual activity, in which case HRS § 711-1110.9 applies instead.

Is it illegal to fly a drone while drunk in Hawaii?

Yes. Operating an uncrewed aircraft while under the influence of an intoxicant is misuse of an uncrewed aircraft in the third degree under HRS § 711-1123, a class C felony. The same section also makes it a class C felony to cause bodily injury with a drone, to damage another person's property by more than $750, to tamper with a drone's identification or registration number, to obstruct a police officer or fire department personnel, or to use a drone in furtherance of a felony.

Does Hawaii police need a warrant to fly a drone over my property?

Hawaii has no statute that specifically requires one. A 2016 bill that would have created a drone-warrant rule did not pass, so ordinary Fourth Amendment and Hawaii constitutional search-and-seizure law applies instead.

Can I sue someone who filmed me with a drone in Hawaii?

It depends. Hawaii's Chapter 711 privacy statutes are criminal laws without their own civil remedy. A related statute, HRS § 803-48, provides a civil claim for statutory damages of at least $10,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees, but only for unlawfully accessing, intercepting, disclosing, or using a wire, oral, or electronic communication, not drone photography or video by itself. A drone-surveillance victim outside that scope would more likely need to bring a common-law claim, such as intrusion upon seclusion.

Is drone fishing legal in Hawaii?

Not without a permit. HRS § 188-23.5 bans using a drone to take aquatic life in or near Hawaii's state marine waters unless the operator has a permit from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, though simple reconnaissance flights are allowed.

Can I shoot down a drone flying over my property in Hawaii?

No. Shooting down any drone is a federal felony under 18 U.S.C. § 32 no matter whose property it is over, because federal law controls the national airspace rather than the landowner below it.