Virginia Drone Laws: Warrants, Trespass & Felony Zones

Virginia requires a search warrant before state or local police may fly a drone, with limited exceptions, under Va. Code section 19.2-60.1, and separately makes it a crime to fly a drone near someone's home to harass them or over critical infrastructure, under section 18.2-121.3.

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

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Virginia law governing private and law-enforcement drone use under Va. Code sections 19.2-60.1 and 18.2-121.3, and 4VAC15-20-240. It does not address FAA registration, Remote ID, or Part 107 pilot certification, which apply the same way nationwide regardless of state law.

How federal and Virginia law divide drone authority

The FAA controls where a drone may fly nationwide. Under 49 U.S.C. section 40102, it classifies any unmanned aircraft as an "aircraft," regardless of size. A commercial or government flight generally needs a Remote Pilot Certificate under 14 C.F.R. Part 107; a hobbyist flight falls under the separate exception at 49 U.S.C. section 44809. Most registrable drones must also broadcast Remote ID since 2023.

That federal framework does not say what a Virginia drone operator may record, or when Virginia police need a warrant. Virginia answers those questions through two separate statutes, one aimed at government drone use and one aimed at private conduct. The government-use statute, section 19.2-60.1, was most recently amended in the 2026 General Assembly session; the private-conduct statute, section 18.2-121.3, was last amended in 2025.

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

Yes, in the core case. Section 19.2-60.1(B) bars a state or local law-enforcement agency, or an agency enforcing state or local regulatory violations, from deploying an unmanned aircraft system except during the execution of a search warrant or an administrative or inspection warrant. Subsection (A) defines "unmanned aircraft" as an aircraft operated without the possibility of human intervention from within or on the aircraft, and "unmanned aircraft system" as that aircraft plus its communication links, sensing devices, and control components.

Subsection (C) lists roughly a dozen exceptions where no warrant is needed: an activated Amber, Senior, or Blue Alert; a situation involving an immediate danger to a person; documenting the scene of a crash the department is investigating; assisting the Department of Transportation; training exercises; consent from someone with legal authority over the property; surveying a primary residence before executing a felony arrest warrant there; hot pursuit of a fleeing suspect; investigating unauthorized drone activity over federal or state property or critical infrastructure; and Department of Environmental Quality enforcement. Subsection (D) goes further and removes several categories from the warrant framework entirely, including damage assessment, traffic assessment, flood-stage assessment, and wildfire assessment, along with private, commercial, recreational, and research drone use generally.

Any evidence a Virginia agency obtains from a drone in violation of section 19.2-60.1 is inadmissible in any criminal or civil proceeding, under subsection (E). The statute also bars a state or local government department, agency, or instrumentality, or a law enforcement department, from deploying a weaponized unmanned aircraft system anywhere in the Commonwealth, with narrow carve-outs for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island and certain Navy Aegis-related facilities, under subsection (F), and exempts Armed Forces and Virginia National Guard training operations under subsection (G). The section has been amended repeatedly since its 2015 enactment, most recently in the 2026 General Assembly session.

Can a private citizen legally fly a drone near my home or over critical infrastructure in Virginia?

Merely flying over your property is not, by itself, a crime under Virginia's private-conduct drone statute, but flying with intent to harass, or flying near certain sensitive sites, is. Va. Code section 18.2-121.3(A) makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly and intentionally cause a drone to enter another person's property within 50 feet of a dwelling with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass the owner or occupant, or to continue doing so after being asked to stop; the same subsection separately criminalizes violating an FAA special security instruction or UAS airspace restriction, and using a drone to drop an item into, or capture images at, a correctional facility.

Subsection (B) escalates to a Class 4 felony for knowingly and intentionally causing a drone, without authorization, to enter the airspace over a public utility or service, a broader category of critical infrastructure that includes certain military installations, or a Maritime Transportation Security Act-regulated facility. Subsection (D) adds a separate Class 4 felony for obtaining or attempting to obtain videographic or still images containing controlled technical information at certain contracted defense facilities, and grants the facility's owner or employees immunity from criminal prosecution and civil liability if they act to prevent an unauthorized drone from entering, provided no one is injured in the process.

Subsection (C) narrows all of this with exceptions: consent from someone authorized to give it, a federally authorized operation conducted in compliance with applicable regulations, an employee conducting official business, and a utility or infrastructure employee performing their job duties are all excluded from the statute's reach.

Virginia's drone hunting ban and the weaponized-drone restriction

Virginia Administrative Code 4VAC15-20-240, adopted under the authority of Va. Code sections 29.1-103, 29.1-501, and 29.1-502, bars using a drone to hunt, take, or kill a wild animal, or to drive or herd a wild animal for the purpose of hunting, trapping, or killing it. It also bars using a drone to harass wildlife, defined as any action creating a likelihood of injury by significantly disrupting normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, and bars hunting, or assisting another person's hunting, on the same calendar day a drone was used to locate or surveil game during an open season. The rule, in effect since July 1, 2019 and amended July 1, 2021, exempts the Department of Wildlife Resources director's designees, department employees and contractors acting for safety, law enforcement, or management purposes, certain federal fisheries and wildlife employees, and local animal control officers performing official duties.

Separately, as noted above, section 19.2-60.1(F) bans any state or local agency from deploying a weaponized drone anywhere in Virginia outside the Wallops Island spaceport and specified Navy Aegis facilities, and excludes from that ban any system designed specifically to disable another drone rather than to strike a person or property.

Can I shoot down a drone over my Virginia property?

No. Federal law makes it a serious felony to damage or destroy any drone, regardless of whose land it is flying over. 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, and a conviction carries up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The FAA has stated publicly that it, not the property owner, controls the airspace, so owning the ground below a drone does not create a right to fire on it.

Virginia has recent, direct experience with the confusion unexplained drones can cause. In December 2024, the Virginia Fusion Center, part of Virginia State Police's Homeland Security Division, received more than 150 tips about drone sightings across the state, concentrated in southwest Virginia around Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Danville. Only 12 of those reports were assigned for further follow-up, and U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Governor Glenn Youngkin, received a classified federal briefing on the sightings without a public conclusion about their source. No Virginia statute, and no federal one, gives a landowner the right to shoot down a drone regardless of how unsettling an unexplained flight may be.

Watch out: Section 18.2-121.3's harassment misdemeanor only reaches conduct within 50 feet of a dwelling, done to coerce, intimidate, or harass, or continued after a request to stop. A drone merely passing through airspace farther from the house, with no harassing intent, does not trigger this specific statute, though it may still raise a warrant question if police are the ones flying it, or support a general trespass or nuisance claim.

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