By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Drones -- unmanned aerial devices -- are coming down in price and are increasingly being embraced by hobbyists. A Philadelphia lawmaker now wants penalties on the books in case drones are used for mischief... or worse.

At issue are not large, military-style drones but smaller, remote-controlled devices that are for consumers and are dropping in price.   Councilman Jim Kenney is concerned about their misuse:

"These are things that could at some point, if not already, be in the hands of people who are hobbyists but also people who are knuckleheads, and want to use them for disrupting things."

Kenney says he's heard of incidents of consumer-grade drones being used for mischief:

"We've seen soccer games internationally stopped because of a drone.  We've heard of people who use them to spy on people in their homes."

So Kenney is introducing a measure that would prohibit the use of these drones above or near gatherings of people.  Penalties would be up to a month in jail and a thousand dollar fine:

"These things are more and more available to the average hobbyists.  There's no indication that they're armed or explosive or anything else.  But if you give people enough opportunities, they'll figure out ways to make things dangerous."

Kenney's proposal also addresses possible misuse of this drone technology by the city's police force, and explicitly prohibits their use for unauthorized surveillance:

"We're on the beginning of this kind of technology, so we're trying to address it and get ahead of the curve."
The measure will be debated in committee.