HB 1148 Arkansas House · 2025 Regular Session

TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS PRIVACY ACT; AND TO ADDRESS CERTAIN IMAGES CAPTURED BY UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS.

HB 1148, now Act 597, creates the Arkansas Privacy Act with specific provisions for drone imagery. It directly affects law enforcement, emergency medical services, and search/rescue teams by allowing them to capture images using unmanned aircraft systems (drones) for incident command, training, crime scene investigation, and search/rescue operations without triggering privacy restrictions. The bill clarifies that drone use by these agencies for these purposes is exempt from privacy requirements, removing prior ambiguities about "documenting" versus "investigating" crime scenes and adding search/rescue as a permitted use. This focuses on defining when drone surveillance does not require privacy safeguards.

Issues: ✓ Technology

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2025

House Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Apr 2025

Signed into Law

Apr 2025

Introduced Jan 15, 2025 Signed Apr 14, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Act 597 → HB 1148 · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill text shows minor formatting and header updates, including the addition of 'Act 597' as a reference to the previous version and the inclusion of multiple engrossment dates (H2/5/25 through H3/11/25). No substantive policy changes, scope modifications, funding adjustments, or eligibility criteria were identified in the provided diff excerpt.

TECHNICAL

Header formatting was updated to include multiple engrossment dates and a reference to the previous Act 597 version.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 14, 2025

Signed into law

Notification that HB1148 is now Act 597

lower

Apr 9, 2025

Lower · Passed

Returned from the Senate as passed.

lower

Apr 9, 2025

Upper · Passed

Returned to the House as passed.

upper

Apr 9, 2025

Upper · Passed

Read the third time and passed.

upper

Apr 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

Returned by the Committee, with the recommendation that it Do Pass

upper

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read the third time and passed and ordered transmitted to the Senate.

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Lower · Passed

Returned by the Committee Do Pass

lower

Mar 11, 2025

Introduced

Amendment No. 5 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

lower

Mar 4, 2025

Introduced

Amendment No. 4 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

lower

Feb 17, 2025

Introduced

Amendment No. 3 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

lower

Feb 10, 2025

Introduced

Amendment No. 2 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

lower

Feb 5, 2025

Introduced

Amendment No. 1 read and adopted and the bill ordered engrossed.

lower

Jan 15, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

2 primary · 1 co-sponsor