Mississippi Drone Laws (2026): Privacy, Prisons & Warrants

Mississippi has no single "drone law" for everyday disputes between neighbors. Instead, a 2021 statute bans unconsented drone surveillance of prisons and critical infrastructure, the state's voyeurism law names drones directly, and a 2025 bill to add drone-specific trespass rules died in committee.

Information last verified on 2026-07-09. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Mississippi state law governing drones, specifically Miss. Code Ann. sections 97-47-1 to 97-47-9, section 97-29-61, and section 61-21-9, as verified on 2026-07-09. It does not address FAA registration, Remote ID, or Part 107 licensing, which apply the same way in every state; see the Drone Laws by State hub for that baseline and for how other states compare.

The FAA sets the airspace rules; Mississippi law covers what happens with the footage

The FAA is the exclusive regulator of where a drone may fly, through drone registration, Remote Pilot Certification under 14 CFR Part 107 for most non-hobby flights, and, since 2023, Remote ID broadcast requirements. None of that answers the questions a Mississippi resident actually has: can a neighbor legally film into your yard with a drone, does police need a warrant to fly one over your property, and is it a crime to fly one over a prison. Those are state-law questions, and Mississippi answers them through a narrow 2021 statute, an older voyeurism law, and general trespass and nuisance principles, rather than one comprehensive drone code.

Can someone legally fly a drone over your property in Mississippi?

Mississippi has no statute giving a property owner a direct civil claim against a neighbor's drone simply for flying over the land, the way some states' anti-paparazzi or aerial-trespass laws do. A resident's strongest tool against an intrusive drone is the voyeurism statute below, which applies when someone uses a drone with specific intent to spy on a person in a place where they expect privacy. Outside that lewd-purpose scenario, a resident bothered by repeated low-altitude flights has to rely on common-law trespass and private nuisance, since no drone-specific civil statute fills the gap. A 2025 bill would have changed this; it did not pass, as discussed below.

Mississippi's voyeurism law reaches camera drones directly

Miss. Code Ann. section 97-29-61 is the sharpest privacy tool a Mississippi resident has against a drone used to spy on them, because the legislature amended it in 2015 to name drones specifically. The statute prohibits viewing or recording, by means of "a periscope, telescope, binoculars, drones, camera, motion-picture camera, camcorder or mobile phone," into the interior of a bedroom, bathroom, changing room, dressing room, spa, massage room, or other area where the occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, done with intent to invade that person's privacy for a lewd, licentious, or indecent purpose and without the consent of everyone present. A conviction carries up to five years in prison, rising to ten years if the person spied on is under sixteen. The law requires that lewd-purpose element; a drone flight that is simply careless or nosy, without that specific intent, does not fit this statute.

The Mississippi Unmanned Aircraft Systems Protection Act of 2021

Mississippi's central drone-crime statute, codified at Miss. Code Ann. sections 97-47-1 through 97-47-9, was enacted through House Bill 974 in the 2021 regular session and took effect July 1, 2021. It creates two offenses. Under section 97-47-5(a), it is unlawful to knowingly use a drone to conduct surveillance of, collect information or data from, or photographically or electronically record a "critical infrastructure" facility (petroleum, chemical, pipeline, electrical, water and wastewater, telecommunications, port, and rail facilities) or a correctional facility, without the prior written consent of the owner or the owner's designee. A first-offense violation is a misdemeanor, up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Under section 97-47-5(b), knowingly delivering or attempting to deliver contraband to a correctional facility by drone is a felony, three to fifteen years in the state penitentiary and up to a $25,000 fine. The Act does not restrict a law-enforcement agency's own drone use for a lawful purpose.

A 2020 prison drone case shows the pattern the law targets

On August 26, 2020, before the 2021 Act existed, a drone piloted by John Travis Ross became tangled in the security netting above the razor-wire fence at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County while attempting to deliver marijuana, a cellphone, chargers, headphones, and lighters to an inmate. The Rankin County Sheriff's Office traced the flight path and identified Ross and a second man, Joshua Ray Corban, who were charged with conspiracy and attempting to smuggle contraband into a correctional facility. Because the incident predated the 2021 Act, prosecutors relied on Mississippi's existing prison-contraband statutes rather than section 97-47-5(b), but the facts are exactly the conduct the Act was written to reach directly, and similar contraband-drop incidents have kept rising nationally at both state and federal prisons since.

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

Mississippi has not enacted a statute requiring a warrant before law enforcement uses a drone to gather evidence, unlike the roughly eleven states, including neighboring Tennessee and Virginia, that have adopted an explicit drone-warrant statute. Mississippi law enforcement's use of drones is instead governed by ordinary Fourth Amendment doctrine as applied by the courts, not a state-specific statutory floor. A resident who believes police used a drone to observe something inside their home or its curtilage without a warrant would need to raise that as an ordinary Fourth Amendment suppression argument in the criminal case, not under a Mississippi drone statute, since none currently exists.

Local ordinances, and a 2025 trespass bill that did not pass

Mississippi reserves most drone regulation to the state. Miss. Code Ann. section 61-21-9, enacted in 2023 through Senate Bill 2146 (the "Uncrewed Aircraft Systems' Rights and Authorities Act"), bars a political subdivision from regulating a drone's ownership, operation, design, airspace, altitude, flight paths, or equipment, or its operator's qualifications. It carves out authority for ordinances enforcing FAA restrictions, general ordinances addressing nuisance, voyeurism, harassment, or property damage regardless of the means used, and ordinances governing drone launch or landing on locally owned property. A city cannot pass its own no-fly-altitude rule, but it can still enforce a general trespass or nuisance ordinance against drone conduct.

House Bill 1494, introduced in the 2025 regular session, would have gone further, amending the general trespass statutes (Miss. Code Ann. sections 97-17-85, 97-17-87, 97-17-93, and 97-17-97) so that flying a drone over another person's land, or an airport's secure area, with intent to surveil counted as criminal trespass statewide. It died in the House Judiciary A Committee on February 4, 2025, without a floor vote. Until the Legislature passes something like it, a resident whose complaint falls short of the voyeurism statute's lewd-purpose standard is left with common-law trespass and nuisance principles rather than a drone-specific civil claim.

Hunting, wildlife harassment, and shooting down a drone

Mississippi has no statute that names drones in its hunting regulations the way states like Montana or Wisconsin do. Its general interference-with-hunting statute, Miss. Code Ann. section 49-7-147, prohibits intentionally interfering with or attempting to prevent the lawful taking of wildlife, disturbing wildlife to prevent its taking, or harassing a person engaged in hunting, and is not limited to any particular method, so it would reach a drone used to harass game or a hunter the same way it reaches any other means. A violation is a Class II offense under Miss. Code Ann. section 49-7-143.

Shooting a drone out of the sky is a separate, more serious problem. Federal law, 18 U.S.C. section 32 (the Aircraft Sabotage Act), makes it a felony punishable by up to twenty years in federal prison to willfully damage, destroy, or disable an aircraft, and the FAA has classified drones as aircraft within the National Airspace System since 2012. That exposure exists even over the shooter's own land, because the FAA, not the landowner, controls the airspace. No Mississippi statute authorizes disabling a drone as a matter of right, and cases where local prosecutors declined to pursue charges after a shoot-down reflect discretionary decisions, not a settled legal right.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about Mississippi law governing drones, as verified on 2026-07-09. It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Readers should consult a lawyer licensed in Mississippi for advice about a specific incident or dispute.

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• Drone Laws by State: the complete hub
• Surveillance Camera Laws by State
• Mississippi Recording Laws: One-Party Consent Rules

Last updated: 2026-07-09. Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-09.

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