The Hartford Courant reports CBS affiliate WFSB is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration after Hartford police say a station employee flew a drone with a camera attached over the scene of a fatal car crash.
The FAA prohibits the use of drones for commercial purposes.
Klarn DePalma, WFSB vice president and general manager, told The Courant WFSB doesn’t own or use drones.
“The person identified in the police report is a temporary, on-call employee of WFSB,” DePalma told The Courant. “However, he was not working for the station on the day of the incident. He was not assigned to shoot video of the crime scene by WFSB and has never been compensated for any drone video.”
The person operating it, Pedro Rivera, 29, told the officers that he works for WFSB, but was not working that day and that the drone was his personal property. He also said that he feeds video back to WFSB, the report says.
Hartford police told FOX affiliate WTIC the use of drones at crime scenes raises privacy issues along with issues of officer safety adding, “The presence of a drone at a crime scene for journalistic purposes is in violation of FAA regulations.”