South Carolina Drone Laws: 2027 Prison-Drone Act & Privacy Rules

South Carolina's landmark Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act, signed into law May 15, 2026, replaces the state's old prison-buffer misdemeanor with a 1,500-foot no-fly zone and new felony penalties for contraband drops and facility surveillance, effective January 1, 2027. Civilian spying still runs through the state's general Peeping Tom law.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses South Carolina law governing private and law-enforcement drone use under S.C. Code Sections 24-1-300, 24-5-175, 16-17-470, and the incoming Sections 55-1-200 through 55-1-230 created by the Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act (effective January 1, 2027). It does not address FAA registration, Remote ID, or Part 107 pilot certification, which apply the same way nationwide regardless of state law.

Federal Airspace Rules vs. South Carolina State Law

The FAA controls where a drone may fly nationwide: altitude limits, pilot certification under 14 CFR Part 107, the recreational-flyer exception at 49 U.S.C. Section 44809, and Remote ID broadcast requirements. That framework does not answer what an operator may lawfully do with captured footage, or how close a drone may come to a South Carolina prison, jail, or military base. South Carolina answers those questions through its own statutes, and the state is in the middle of a rare, sweeping overhaul of that layer.

South Carolina's New Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act

South Carolina has struggled for years with drones dropping contraband into prison yards, a problem that made national news again in December 2025, when officers at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville intercepted a drone drop of steak, crab legs, marijuana, cigarettes, and Old Bay seasoning meant for an early holiday meal. The legislature's response, H.4679, the South Carolina Drone Regulation and Public Safety Act, cleared both chambers without a dissenting vote: the House voted 108-0 on second reading April 14, 2026, and gave the bill third reading the next day; the Senate voted 46-0 on second reading May 7 and third reading May 12; and the House concurred in the Senate's amendments 92-0 on May 13. The bill was ratified May 14, 2026, as Ratification No. 198, and Governor Henry McMaster signed it into law on May 15, 2026, as Act No. 150. Its provisions do not take effect immediately; they become operative January 1, 2027.

The Act adds a new Article 3 to Chapter 1 of Title 55, creating S.C. Code Sections 55-1-200 through 55-1-230. Section 55-1-200 defines key terms, distinguishing FAA Part 107 commercial operators from recreational operators under 49 U.S.C. Section 44809, and defines "military installation" broadly enough to include Navy vessels and Coast Guard cutters in the state's territorial waters and South Carolina National Guard facilities. Section 55-1-210 requires registration, FAA compliance, and, for recreational flyers, the Recreational UAS Safety Test.

Section 55-1-220 sets the operative prohibitions. It becomes unlawful to operate, take off, or land a drone within 1,500 feet horizontally of a correctional or detention facility, or military installation, without express written consent, a large expansion from the 500-foot buffer under Sections 24-1-300 and 24-5-175. Those buffer-zone and registration misdemeanors carry escalating penalties, up to $1,000 or 6 months for a first offense, up to $5,000 or 2 years for a third. On top of that, the Act creates two felony tiers: contraband delivery or surveilling a facility to identify vulnerabilities is up to 5 years and a $10,000 fine, and weaponizing a drone or using one to threaten or harm is up to 10 years and $25,000, with mandatory equipment seizure. Section 55-1-230 bars local ordinances that conflict with the state framework or FAA rules, but still lets municipalities impose "reasonable restrictions" on takeoff and landing sites on public property, unlike Florida or Texas, which broadly preempt local drone regulation, subject to limited carve-outs.

South Carolina Law Until January 1, 2027

Until the new Act takes effect, South Carolina's operative drone-specific statutes are narrower. Section 24-1-300 bars a drone within 500 feet horizontally or 250 feet vertically of any DOC facility without written consent from the SCDC Director, and Section 24-5-175 imposes the identical buffer around local detention facilities. Both are misdemeanors, up to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail, and both authorize confiscation of the drone. Both carve out FAA-registered infrastructure inspectors who notify the facility administrator two hours to five days beforehand. The new Act repeals both sections January 1, 2027, replacing them with the broader felony-backed framework above.

Can a Private Citizen Legally Fly a Drone Over Your Property in South Carolina?

Neither the current law nor the incoming 2027 Act creates a civilian drone-privacy statute the way Kentucky's or Florida's laws do; South Carolina's new Act targets correctional and military facilities, not neighbor disputes. Instead, using a drone to spy on someone is prosecuted under South Carolina's general Peeping Tom and voyeurism statute, S.C. Code Section 16-17-470, which makes it a misdemeanor to be an eavesdropper or peeping tom on another's premises, and expressly defines "peeping tom" to include a person who employs "video or audio equipment" for that purpose, broad enough to reach a camera-equipped drone. A first conviction carries up to a $500 fine and 3 years in prison. Where the purpose is sexual arousal or gratification, the same section separately defines voyeurism, and a second or subsequent voyeurism conviction, or aggravated voyeurism (selling or distributing the images), is a felony carrying up to 5 or 10 years, respectively.

Outside that voyeurism framework, a South Carolina property owner bothered by a neighbor's low-flying drone generally has to rely on general trespass and nuisance principles rather than a drone-specific civil remedy, since the state has not enacted a broader civilian image-capture statute comparable to North Carolina's Section 15A-300.1 just across the border.

Does South Carolina Police Need a Warrant to Fly a Drone Over Your Property?

South Carolina has not enacted a drone-specific law-enforcement warrant statute comparable to those in Illinois, Minnesota, or Virginia. Neither the current prison-buffer statutes nor the incoming Act imposes a warrant requirement on law enforcement drone use generally; the new Act's exemptions instead excuse correctional, military, and law-enforcement personnel from the 1,500-foot buffer zones when acting within the scope of their duties. That means whether South Carolina police need a warrant before flying a drone over a resident's property is governed by ordinary Fourth Amendment and state constitutional search-and-seizure case law, not a statutory floor written for drones.

Can You Shoot Down a Drone Over Your Property in South Carolina?

No. Every drone is legally an "aircraft" under federal law, and 18 U.S.C. Section 32, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, makes willfully damaging, destroying, or disabling one a federal felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, regardless of whose property it is flying over. The FAA has stated since 2016 that it, not the landowner, controls the national airspace. Neither South Carolina's current prison-buffer statutes nor the incoming 2027 Act creates any state-law right for a landowner to disable a drone; confiscation belongs to law enforcement and facility administrators, not individual property owners.

South Carolina Drone Rules at a Glance

Watch out: South Carolina's incoming 1,500-foot buffer and felony tiers do not take effect until January 1, 2027. Until that date, the operative correctional-facility buffer remains the narrower 500-foot/250-foot rule under Sections 24-1-300 and 24-5-175. Operators and facility neighbors should track the effective date rather than assume the new rule already applies.

This guide is part of our Drone Laws by State series; for the broader rules on recording and surveillance across South Carolina, see our surveillance camera laws guide.

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