Drone Laws in North Dakota: Weaponized Police Drones, BVLOS, and What Pilots Need to Know (2026)

North Dakota's drone landscape is defined by two extremes. On one hand, it has one of the most permissive operating environments for commercial and recreational pilots: no state registration, no local ordinances, and the nation's only statewide BVLOS network. On the other hand, it is the only state that explicitly permits armed police drones, a policy that continues to draw national scrutiny.

Every FAA rule applies in North Dakota as the regulatory baseline. State laws add restrictions on top of these, but they cannot override or relax federal requirements.

For a full breakdown of federal costs, see our drone license cost guide. For airspace restrictions, check the drone no-fly zones guide.

North Dakota's drone law sits in a single statute: NDCC Chapter 29-29.4, titled "Surveillance by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle." Originally signed into law in August 2015, it was a direct response to the first drone-assisted arrest in U.S. history (more on that below). The statute governs law enforcement drone use, private surveillance, and weaponization.

The less-than-lethal weapons loophole

Section 29-29.4-02 prohibits law enforcement from using drones armed with lethal weapons. But the original bill (HB 1328) was amended during the legislative process to specifically allow "less than lethal" weapons on police drones. No other state has this provision. The law does not provide a definition of what counts as less than lethal, which means the determination falls to individual law enforcement agencies. Rubber bullets, beanbag rounds, pepper spray, and Tasers are all presumed to qualify, despite documented cases of fatalities from each of these tools in non-drone contexts.

Warrant requirement for law enforcement drones

Section 29-29.4-03 requires law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before conducting drone surveillance. This is more protective than many states, which have no warrant requirement at all. Evidence collected without a warrant (outside the listed exceptions) is inadmissible in prosecution. The exceptions are narrow: patrol within 25 miles of the Canadian border, exigent circumstances, weather or environmental catastrophes, and educational or research purposes.

The 25-mile border exception

North Dakota shares a 310-mile border with Canada. Section 29-29.4-04 allows law enforcement to fly drones without a warrant within 25 miles of the international border for the purpose of preventing illegal activity. This exception is unique to North Dakota among U.S. states.

Private surveillance prohibition

For civilian pilots, Section 29-29.4-05 is the statute to know. It prohibits using drones to track private persons, property, or property owners without their consent. Violation is a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to 360 days imprisonment and a $3,000 fine. The law does have a gap, though: it focuses primarily on law enforcement drone use, and the civilian provisions are less detailed than drone privacy laws in states like Oklahoma or California.

The Brossart case: America's first drone-assisted arrest

On June 23, 2011, six cows wandered onto Rodney Brossart's 3,600-acre farm near Lakota in Nelson County. When Brossart refused to return them and his sons turned deputies away at gunpoint, a 16-hour armed standoff erupted involving deputies from three counties, a SWAT team, and a bomb squad. Law enforcement called in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection MQ-9 Predator drone to locate and monitor the family across the sprawling property. The Predator's real-time aerial surveillance enabled SWAT to approach safely and arrest all four family members.

Brossart was acquitted of cattle theft but convicted of terrorizing police officers, receiving 3 years in prison (all but 6 months suspended) plus a $1,000 fine. His three sons pleaded guilty to misdemeanor menacing charges and received 1 year of probation each. The defense argued the warrantless drone use constituted an illegal search, but the court allowed the evidence. This case directly led to the passage of NDCC 29-29.4 in 2015, establishing the warrant requirement for law enforcement drone surveillance.

In 2016, journalist Deia Schlosberg was arrested and faced up to 7 years in prison for filming Dakota Access Pipeline protests with a drone near Standing Rock. The charges were eventually dismissed, but the case highlighted ongoing tensions between drone journalism and law enforcement in the state.

For more on privacy protections, see our drone spying laws guide and flying over private property guide.

North Dakota's wide-open landscape and lack of local ordinances make it one of the easiest states for finding legal flying locations. No city, county, or municipality has enacted a local drone ordinance. That said, federal restrictions around airports, military bases, and national parks still apply.

The Vantis BVLOS network

As of 2026, North Dakota activated the Vantis network: a statewide beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) infrastructure that is the most advanced UAS operating environment in the nation. Qualifying operators can fly BVLOS at up to 400 feet without chase aircraft, including nighttime operations using Casia G Release 4.0 detect-and-avoid software. This makes North Dakota the only state where commercial operators can routinely conduct BVLOS flights across nearly the entire state. The Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) in Grand Forks is one of seven FAA-designated UAS test sites and serves as the development hub for Vantis.

For more on airspace rules, see our guides on drone no-fly zones and where you can fly a drone.

Commercial drone operations in North Dakota require the standard FAA Part 107 certificate with one major exception: agricultural aerial application has a four-part state licensing stack that goes well beyond federal requirements.

Part 107 basics

The Part 107 test costs $175, covers 60 multiple-choice questions on airspace, weather, and regulations, and is valid for 24 months before requiring a recurrent test. North Dakota has PSI testing centers in Bismarck, Fargo, and Grand Forks.

Agricultural aerial application (the exception)

If you plan to use a drone for agricultural spraying in North Dakota, you need all four of the following:

1. FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate
2. FAA Part 137 Agricultural Aircraft Operator Certificate
3. North Dakota State University (NDSU) Pesticide Certificate
4. North Dakota Unmanned Aerial Applicator License ($200 fee, issued by the ND Aeronautics Commission)

You must also attend one agricultural safety meeting per year, either an ND Aeronautics Commission safety meeting or a PAASS seminar. This is the most demanding state-level agricultural drone licensing stack in the country.

Commercial opportunities

North Dakota's unique infrastructure creates commercial advantages that don't exist elsewhere:

• Agricultural monitoring and precision spraying across the state's 39.3 million acres of farmland
• Pipeline and energy infrastructure inspection (Bakken oil field operations)
• BVLOS surveying and mapping without chase aircraft (via Vantis network)
• UAS research and development at the Northern Plains UAS Test Site
• Crop insurance documentation and damage assessment

For a full guide on getting started, see our how to start a drone business guide and drone pilot salary guide.