Nebraska Drone Laws: Trespass, Privacy & Wildlife Rules

Nebraska now has a dedicated drone-operation statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. section 28-1358, operative July 18, 2026, which requires every operator to produce FAA registration to a peace officer on request and to clear restricted airspace in advance. Alongside it, two general criminal laws, on trespass and unlawful intrusion, were amended to name drones explicitly, and a 2025 law restricts which drones state agencies can buy.

This guide is part of our Drone Laws by State series; for the broader rules on recording people and property in Nebraska, see our surveillance camera laws guide.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Nebraska law governing drone operation under Neb. Rev. Stat. section 28-1358, private drone surveillance under sections 28-521 and 28-311.08, government drone procurement under the Secure Drone Purchasing Act, and wildlife-interference rules under sections 37-509 and 37-516. It does not explain the federal rules themselves, such as how to register a drone, how Remote ID broadcast works, or how to obtain a Part 107 certificate, which operate the same way nationwide. Note, though, that Nebraska now attaches its own state-law consequences to two of them: section 28-1358(2) makes failing to produce FAA registration to a Nebraska peace officer a state crime, and section 28-1358(4) makes a Part 107 certificate one condition of the only exemption from the state's restricted-airspace notice rule.

How Federal and Nebraska Law Divide Drone Authority

The FAA regulates where a drone may fly. Under 49 U.S.C. section 40102, it treats any unmanned aircraft as an "aircraft," pulling it into the national airspace system regardless of size. A commercial or government flight generally needs a Remote Pilot Certificate under 14 C.F.R. Part 107, and a hobbyist flight falls under the separate statutory exception at 49 U.S.C. section 44809. Most registrable drones must also broadcast Remote ID.

None of that answers what a Nebraska drone operator may record, or whether Nebraska police need a warrant. Those questions sit in state criminal, trespass, and wildlife law. Nebraska spreads its answers across several statutes rather than one comprehensive drone-privacy act: a dedicated operating statute added in 2026, section 28-1358, now sits alongside drone-specific amendments to the trespass and unlawful intrusion laws and older aircraft provisions in the wildlife code.

Nebraska's Drone Operation Statute: Registration on Request and Restricted Airspace

Neb. Rev. Stat. section 28-1358, enacted as Laws 2026, LB935, section 23, and operative July 18, 2026, is Nebraska's first statute written specifically to govern how a drone is flown rather than what it records. It reaches anyone, hobbyist or commercial, who launches or operates a drone anywhere in the state, and it imposes two separate duties.

The first is a documentation duty. Under subsection (2), anyone who launches or operates a drone in Nebraska must present, immediately upon request by any peace officer, either a current certificate of aircraft registration issued by the FAA or a registered identification number for the aircraft. Nothing in the section exempts anyone from that duty.

The second is an airspace duty. Subsection (3) bars launching or operating a drone in a restricted area unless the operator has received FAA approval, is complying with all its terms and conditions, and, before flying, has notified all state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction in the area. Subsection (1)(a) defines "restricted area" broadly: airspace the FAA has restricted by Notice to Airmen, Temporary Flight Restriction, No Drone Zone, or other means, and separately any airspace classified Class B, C, or D by the FAA as those classifications existed on January 1, 2026. The second branch is the one most likely to catch an ordinary flyer, because it takes in the controlled airspace around Nebraska's busier airports, including the areas over much of Omaha and Lincoln.

Subsection (4) carves out an exemption, and only from the airspace rule in subsection (3). It applies to commercial operation, and only where the operator holds an FAA remote pilot certificate under 14 C.F.R. Part 107, has received FAA approval for the operation, and does not enter a restricted area of the Notice to Airmen type described in subdivision (1)(a)(i). A recreational flight qualifies for no exemption at all, so a hobbyist inside Class B, C, or D airspace still owes the advance notice to local law enforcement even holding FAA authorization.

A violation of section 28-1358 is a Class III misdemeanor.

Can a Private Citizen Legally Fly a Drone Over My Property in Nebraska?

Merely flying a drone across the airspace above someone else's land is not, by itself, an offense against that neighbor in Nebraska. Where the flight happens is a separate question: if the property sits inside Class B, C, or D airspace or another restricted area, section 28-1358(3) puts its own advance-notice duty on the operator, enforceable by the state regardless of what the neighbor thinks. What Nebraska's privacy statutes criminalize is using a drone to watch or record someone without consent in a place they have kept private. Neb. Rev. Stat. section 28-521, Nebraska's second degree criminal trespass statute, covers physical intrusions generally, and subsection (2) extends it to a person who, knowing they are not licensed or privileged to do so, intentionally causes an electronic device, including an unmanned aircraft, to enter into, upon, or above another person's property with intent to observe them without consent in a place of solitude or seclusion. A first violation is a Class III misdemeanor; if the operator then defies a personal order to leave, or to stop, the offense rises to a Class II misdemeanor.

A second, separate statute reaches a narrower but more serious scenario. Neb. Rev. Stat. section 28-311.08, the unlawful intrusion law, makes it unlawful to knowingly intrude on another person, without consent, in a place of solitude or seclusion. Its definition of "intrude" expressly covers viewing a person in a state of undress as it is occurring, or recording them by video, photographic, digital, or other electronic means, and specifically lists "unmanned aircraft" (defined to include a drone) as a covered method. A first offense is a Class I misdemeanor; a second is a Class IV felony. The same chapter separately criminalizes photographing someone's intimate areas without consent and distributing such images, with penalties that escalate to a felony.

Outside those two statutes, a Nebraska property owner bothered by a drone that does not rise to unlawful observation or intrusion is generally left to ordinary trespass, nuisance, or harassment law.

Does Police Need a Warrant to Fly a Drone Over My Property in Nebraska?

No dedicated statute answers this. Nebraska has not enacted a law requiring a warrant before a law enforcement agency uses a drone to gather evidence or conduct surveillance, and it has not adopted an exclusionary rule specific to drone-gathered evidence. That leaves ordinary Fourth Amendment doctrine, as interpreted by federal and Nebraska courts, to govern when a warrantless drone flight crosses into an unreasonable search, along with each department's own internal policy.

The Nebraska drone law that does touch government use, the Secure Drone Purchasing Act (LB 660, signed May 20, 2025, and codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 73-1001 to 73-1005), does not regulate flight conduct. It responds to concerns about foreign-made drones by directing the Department of Transportation's Division of Aeronautics, working with the Nebraska State Patrol, to build and maintain a list of drones cleared under the U.S. Department of Defense's Blue UAS program or otherwise meeting the state's cybersecurity standard. Starting January 1, 2027, state agencies spending state funds may generally only buy drones on that list. It says nothing about when or how a Nebraska agency, once it owns a compliant drone, may fly it over private property.

Nebraska's Ban on Using Drones to Hunt or Harass Wildlife

Nebraska's Game and Parks Commission applies two older aircraft statutes to drones. Neb. Rev. Stat. section 37-509 makes it unlawful to shoot or attempt to kill a bird, fish, or other animal while airborne, to use an aircraft to harass wildlife, or to knowingly help someone do either, without a permit issued under section 37-458; a violation is a Class II misdemeanor. Section 37-516 separately bars using an aircraft, vessel, vehicle, or similar conveyance to molest, chase, drive, or harass a game animal or game bird, or to cause it to leave its habitat.

Game and Parks has publicly confirmed it treats a drone as an aircraft for purposes of both statutes: a hunter may not use a drone to spot, locate, or drive game, and no one may use a drone to flush or harass wildlife, including protected species such as whooping cranes, piping plovers, and bald eagles, the last of which also carries separate federal protection under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Drones are also barred from Nebraska state parks, state historical parks, state recreation areas, and wildlife management areas without a special-use permit.

Watch out: Nebraska's two drone-privacy statutes are narrower than a general privacy law. Section 28-521(2) requires intent to observe someone without consent in a place of solitude or seclusion, and section 28-311.08 is aimed at viewing or recording a person undressing. A drone that merely photographs a fenced backyard or a parked car, without capturing a person in either scenario, may not fit either statute, and a property owner in that situation is generally limited to a civil trespass or nuisance claim rather than a criminal complaint. Section 28-1358 does not fill that gap either: it is an operating rule enforced by the state, not a privacy right the neighbor can invoke.

Can I Shoot Down a Drone Over My Nebraska Property?

No. Federal law makes it a serious crime to damage, destroy, or disable any drone, including one hovering low over your own yard. 18 U.S.C. section 32, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, criminalizes willfully damaging an "aircraft," a category the FAA has applied to drones since 2012. A conviction carries up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine up to $250,000, and the permanent loss of Second Amendment rights that follows any federal felony. The FAA's position is that it controls the national airspace, not the landowner below, so owning the ground does not create a right to fire on what is above it. No Nebraska statute authorizes a landowner to shoot down or disable a drone as a matter of right, regardless of what the drone was doing.

More Nebraska Laws

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