Missouri Drone Laws (2026): Stadiums, Prisons & Privacy

Missouri has no general drone-privacy statute and no warrant requirement for police drone use, but it bans flying a drone over a large stadium or a prison, and its invasion of privacy law reaches a drone used to peep into a private space.

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

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Missouri state law governing drones, specifically Mo. Rev. Stat. sections 577.800 and 217.850, section 565.252, and the Missouri Wildlife Code's hunting-drone rules, 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; Missouri law covers what happens on the ground

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. That does not answer the questions a Missouri resident actually has: can a neighbor legally hover a drone over your backyard, does police need a warrant to fly one over your property, and what happens if you fly one near Arrowhead Stadium or a state prison. Those are state-law questions, and Missouri answers them narrowly, through two venue-specific criminal statutes passed in 2020, a general invasion of privacy law that predates drones, and hunting regulations, rather than one comprehensive drone code.

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

Missouri has no statute giving a property owner a standalone civil claim against a neighbor's drone for the overflight itself, unlike states such as California or Nevada that created a drone-specific trespass or nuisance tort. A resident's clearest legal tool against an intrusive drone is the invasion of privacy statute below, which applies when someone uses a drone to record them nude or through their clothing in a place where they reasonably expect privacy. Outside that scenario, a resident bothered by a drone repeatedly hovering low over their yard has to rely on common-law trespass and private nuisance, since no drone-specific civil statute fills the gap. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 569.140, the general first-degree trespass statute, requires the property be fenced, enclosed, or posted, and is written around entering or remaining on land rather than airspace intrusion, so its fit to a drone overflight is untested in Missouri courts.

Missouri's invasion of privacy law reaches a drone used to peep

Mo. Rev. Stat. section 565.252 does not mention drones by name, but its text is broad enough to cover one. The statute makes it a crime to knowingly photograph, film, videotape, or otherwise create an image of another person without consent while that person is in a state of full or partial nudity in a place where they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, or to create an image under or through a person's clothing without consent. A drone camera aimed at a bedroom window or hovering over a privacy-fenced backyard fits this description as readily as a handheld camera would. A first violation is a Class A misdemeanor, rising to a Class E felony if the image is distributed or transmitted electronically, if more than one person is captured in the same course of conduct, or on a repeat offense. The statute took its current form effective January 1, 2017, after amendment by 2014 Senate Bill 491.

Missouri's two venue-specific drone statutes

Both of Missouri's drone-specific criminal statutes were created by the same 2020 public-safety bill, House Bill 1963, and took effect August 28, 2020.

Mo. Rev. Stat. section 577.800 makes it an offense to purposely operate a drone within 400 feet vertically of the ground and within the property line of an "open-air facility," defined as a sports, theater, music, performing arts, or other entertainment venue with a capacity of 500 or more that is not completely enclosed by a roof, such as Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City or Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The statute was amended twice in 2026: House Bills 2637 and 3155, effective June 12, 2026, lowered the open-air-facility capacity threshold from 5,000 to 500, extended the same 400-foot restriction to a "critical infrastructure facility" as defined in section 569.086, and added delivering an explosive device or material to the weapon-delivery felony tier; Senate Bill 1421, effective July 9, 2026, separately authorized law enforcement to take mitigation measures against a drone posing an imminent threat and seize it, with a seized drone subject to forfeiture under the Criminal Activity Forfeiture Act. A basic violation is an infraction, but delivering a weapon (including an explosive device or material) by drone is a Class B felony and delivering a controlled substance is a Class D felony. The statute exempts authorized facility employees, people with written consent from facility leadership, law enforcement and emergency personnel, and utilities, and requires covered facilities to post warning signage.

Mo. Rev. Stat. section 217.850, enacted in the same bill, separately bans operating a drone within 400 feet vertically over a correctional center's secure perimeter, or letting one contact the facility or anyone on its grounds. It covers correctional centers, private jails, and county or municipal jails. A basic violation is an infraction, but delivering a weapon is a Class B felony, facilitating an escape is a Class C felony, and delivering drugs is a Class D felony. Seven categories of operator are exempted, including facility employees, law enforcement, and utility employees inspecting infrastructure with prior notice.

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

No. Missouri is one of the states where police drone use is governed entirely by ordinary Fourth Amendment case law rather than a state statutory warrant floor. A bill titled the "Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act" would change that by requiring state, county, and local law enforcement to get a warrant before using a drone to gather evidence or information related to criminal conduct, with an exception for imminent life-threatening emergencies and a requirement that drone flights over privately held land have the owner's permission. That bill, most recently filed as House Bill 209 in the 2025 session, has been introduced repeatedly under different bill numbers since 2013, including House Bill 46 (2013) and House Bill 1204 (2015), and has never passed. Until it does, a Missouri police department can generally fly a drone over private property to gather evidence without a warrant, the same way it could observe that property from a manned aircraft in public airspace, subject only to the general Fourth Amendment limits that apply to any government search.

Hunting, wildlife, and a 2024 rule change worth knowing

Missouri does not ban drone use for hunting outright, and its regulatory posture recently loosened rather than tightened. Effective for the 2024 to 2025 season, the Missouri Department of Conservation's Wildlife Code began allowing hunters to use a drone specifically to locate and recover a wounded or dead deer, turkey, elk, or black bear during the relevant season. That narrow allowance sits alongside a broader, continuing prohibition: a drone may not be used to pursue, take, attempt to take, drive, or otherwise harass wildlife, and a hunter cannot possess a firearm, bow, or crossbow afield while a drone is in flight for game-recovery purposes. Hunters who want to use a drone on a conservation area must first get permission from the county conservation agent. Separately, Mo. Rev. Stat. section 578.151 makes it an offense to intentionally interfere with the lawful taking of wildlife by another or to intentionally harass, drive, or disturb game to disrupt a hunt, which is not limited to any particular method and would reach a drone used for that purpose.

Shooting down a drone is a federal crime, not a Missouri property right

Missouri has no statute authorizing a landowner to disable or shoot down a drone flying over their land, and doing so carries serious federal exposure regardless of Missouri trespass 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 treated drones as aircraft within the National Airspace System since 2012. That exposure applies even over the shooter's own property, because the FAA, not the landowner, controls the airspace. Publicized cases in other states where local prosecutors declined to bring or continue state charges after a drone shoot-down are examples of discretionary charging decisions, not evidence of a legal right to disable a drone; no state, including Missouri, has enacted a law affirmatively authorizing it.

Separately, Missouri lawmakers introduced two 2025 bills, House Bill 210 and Senate Bill 296, that would bar state and local agencies from buying or operating drones from manufacturers tied to countries such as China, Russia, or Iran. Those address government procurement, not civilian privacy or trespass, and had not been enacted as of this writing.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about Missouri 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 Missouri for advice about a specific incident or dispute.

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

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