I was arrested for flying a drone *updated with video*

[Eddington]

OP has done me quite a service. My wife gave me a Mavic Air and a ton of extra equipment for Christmas. Been spending a good bit of time getting the Part 107 license, getting it all set up, starting up the iPad mini she bought me. However, I live within 5 miles of a Class B Airport, so no can fly at home. Can't fly at night, can't fly above 400 AGL, can't fly in a TFR, can't fly beyond line of sight. Have a cabin but it's within 5 miles of a private airstrip so operating by the letter I would have inform the operator of the strip before I fly. If I break these rules I risk a suspension of my actual pilots license which would mean I don't work. The juvenile, unprofessional approach of some (not all) on here helps me understand that this is not for me. Hope she can get most of her money back.

Since you spent a lot of time studying and still don't clearly understand the rules, maybe it's a good thing you are not getting into it. I hope that your wife does get her money back.

 

[regnaD kciN]

New here. What I like about this thread is that it is a real issue that will likely come up more than once as I gather footage for my projects. Reading the “right” and “wrong” ways to handle the same situation, hopefully, will help me handle my future event in a manner that both allows me to go home and do so with my stuff and the footage I set out to capture to begin with.

 

[Eddington]

He didn't comply and had to run his mouth. He knew he was in the right so he just had to push the cops buttons. They have to deal with way too much of this crap these days. That was not the time to say show it to me in writing.

Really? I agree that they have to deal with more crap these days. But I disagree that you can't question them when they are wrong, or ask them to show you.

Fortunately my two LEO involvements related to my drone were pleasant experiences, one of which included a LEO that didn't know the law, went to research and came back after a bit confirming what I had explained to her. Which shows that not all cops are like the OP's cops.

 

[Eddington]

If they don't know the LAWS, they should learn them or they are called Nazis.

There's no reason for that comment... Having dealt with a cop that didn't know the law but took a few minutes to learn it before she responded to the situation, your comparison is out of line.

 

[Dingo]

Good on you for knowing your rights and speaking up.

 

[Nosebump]

“Being handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car is not "winning". Now the paradign has shifted from enforcement, to justification. The officer must now legal justify what he's done, making it difficult (-if not impossible) to go back to the discussion stage. The same with the legal entity governing the park. They now have written an adverse rule that affects future drone activities, effectively buttoning up any future flights. In their mind, the "danger" has been eliminated. It could've turned out differently, don't you think?

New to the forum and I’m sympathetic with the OP’s situation especially the non release of his gear. However is this thread not degenerating into a kick the cop spew? I’m in New Zealand and like most countries we have good cops and bad cops. Without judging the guy’s behaviour towards the enforcement guys the best approach is IMHO to always try to be an ambassador for what is a misunderstood bogeyman pastime. We do what we do in most cases in the public eye and because of a few we are probably regarded in similar light as are the cops.

Keen to hear how the case concludes and less keen to hear bitching.[/QUOTE]

I agree. We should mitigate our actions by becoming "ambassadors" of the sport. -Not in-the-field litigators, but diplomats. Much more will get accomplished by assuming that behavior, and with proportionally more favorable results. The "lawyer" who commented earlier that he would've been more aggressive is (-in my opinion) incorrect. The place for argument, disagreement, and confrontation will come later, or even in court.

 

[Nosebump]

That was very nicely reasoned out. Now if only I could do that in the heat of the moment as you said at the beginning. Wouldn't that be great.

Again, I agree. The behavior that I've outlined should be followed with (almost) all law enforcement encounters. While we understand that our actions are difficult to control in stressful situations, we sometimes don't look far enough to appreciate the environment that most police officers endure. They're exposed to the very worst elements of humanity, and have learned to react accordingly. When you begin to press their "buttons", you set yourself up for a less than favorable reaction. Disarm the encounter by being friendly and polite. Be an Ambassador".

 

[summerplumber]

I am sad to see this happen in my state. I did some checking and we can fly in state parks for now, but I can not fly in county parks where I live and city parks rules change often so you better check just before you fly.

 

[DynoTech]

Interesting that a park that allows off roading and mud bogging would have an issue with drones. Anyways, I agree that overreaching authority should not be left to its own devices. However, I think there are more productive ways to do it than stooping to the level the cop did( being snarky back to them and planning an ** gathering after being set free). I don’t see this method generating a positive outcome for drones in the future. Ie: law enforcements view of them and how it could go over with an already touchy public who increasingly have negative views towards them.

 

[erkme73]

To those who think challenging a cop about the law is inappropriate...

"The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." -- The U.S. Supreme Court, June 15, 1987

The land of the free and the home of the brave... Not any more...

 

[Earthman]

No idea who would prevail in court, but it sounds to me (not an attorney) like you may have a case. See if your attorney agrees. If so and you have the time, it may be worth pushing back for the benefit of the RC community. This is the only way ”we” have a voice in these situations. See if you can get any publicity and financial backing from the AMA, ACLU, Go Fund Me, members here, Joshua Bardwell and other YouTubers, etc.

It would be interesting to see where your apparent false arrest and attempt to roll back the new ordinance go legally.

By the way, our local county parks prohibit launching and landing sUASs in the parks, except at the designated flying fields, which they have had since before multirotor ”drones.” In any case, their approach to perventing drone flights within most of the park area(s) seems legal since they aren’t trying to regulate what the FAA regulates. I don't know that there is a way around this.

 

[Ozarkwoods]

Did the OP ever get his bird and iPad back?

 

[PhoebeSnow]

ON THE SPOT is my issue. It was too late at that point. I just see that going a complete different direction and never getting to the bad cop.

He had a right to know why he was being charged ON THE SPOT. I have to assume there were no signs in the park or the OP wouldn't have flown in the first place. So if there was no visible signage in the park, and only some nebulous ordinance in a tucked away rule book, and he was getting charged, he had the right ON THE SPOT to know why and to verbally challenge whether what he was doing was in violation of that ordinance. He may very well have reasoned his way out of the charge ON THE SPOT by contesting the way the ordinance was written. And from what was written and fact that the prosecutor elected not to charge him pretty much tells you he was not in violation of the ordinance the way it was defined.

 

[AMann]

To those who think challenging a cop about the law is inappropriate...

"The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." -- The U.S. Supreme Court, June 15, 1987

The land of the free and the home of the brave... Not any more...

Very good point, and the OP had two options, really.

First one was he could have just packed it up and gone somewhere else after talking with the first cop, and the second which he chose is to ask questions that challenged the second cop (OP’s absolute right to do it if he wants) then get a lawyer and maybe even take it to the next level in federal court as the second cop may have violated his first amendment rights. Personally, I’d have gone with the first choice, but more power to OP, as he was obviously prepared to go with the second choice even before the cops came.

 

[netfolks2000]

I know and have known several officers and will always give them the benefit of the doubt. You may not realize that there is a rise in resignations in this profession due to the increased violence directed at them from recent national events, much of that pressure on them to quit from family members. I'm afraid this will bring on a less qualified force, maybe reduced standards to get applicants. Ask yourself if you'd like your son or daughter to be out there on the graveyard shift today. As for me, I'll always move and talk slowly, with respect, and use my demeanor to diminish any anxiety on the part of an officer. I appreciate what they do. They are a tiny minority of people between us and complete chaos. They deal with "mess" most of their work day.

 

[jagwal]

What surprises, and disappoints me most out of this whole story, is the amount of people that actually defend this cop's behavior. Unbelievable. Should the O.P. just have rolled over and take it? you gotta be kidding. Bullying is not OK. It doesn't matter if that cop had a bad day, or that cops do a good job in general, or that he is a nurse or doctor and saves lives, the Queen or a car mechanic or whatever. Bullying is not OK.
The O.P. was quite respectful IMO, if it was me, that recording would be way more entertaining....

 

[CanyonRunVideos]

Police have a job to do and we shouldn't question them.

Police have a job to do and we shouldn't question them.

WHAT!!!! are you serious?

 

[AMann]

What surprises, and disappoints me most out of this whole story, is the amount of people that actually defend this cop's behavior. Unbelievable. Should the O.P. just have rolled over and take it? you gotta be kidding. Bullying is not OK. It doesn't matter if that cop had a bad day, or that cops do a good job in general, or that he is a nurse or doctor and saves lives, the Queen or a car mechanic or whatever. Bullying is not OK.
The O.P. was quite respectful IMO, if it was me, that recording would be way more entertaining....

He was respectful and in his rights to ask those questions, but I hope it was worth it. That cop isn’t mad that the case got dropped, he’s laughing and talking about how he rolled the guy and put him in the squad car and how the guy paid for a lawyer to beat his $25 ticket. Who really won? It wouldn’t have been worth it to me. I feel for OP though, he was in his rights to ask those questions, but perhaps it would have been better to ask them with the park manager at his office instead.

 

[BD0G]

Everyone does realize that this "cop" is actually a "park ranger" (as signified on the patch that is sewn onto his left shoulder in the picture posted)
Who are all of these bad people that give him so much trouble on a daily basis? How does he have to deal with lots of mess?

Did he have a bad day because he had to sit in a booth and collect parking fees?
Did his patrol mountain bike have a flat tire that he had to use a patch kit on?
Perhaps he tends a park in which the squirrels throw acorns at parked cars?

 

[JDawg]

Everyone does realize that this "cop" is actually a "park ranger" (as signified on the patch that is sewn onto his left shoulder in the picture posted)
Who are all of these bad people that give him so much trouble on a daily basis? How does he have to deal with lots of mess?

Did he have a bad day because he had to sit in a booth and collect parking fees?
Did his patrol mountain bike have a flat tire that he had to use a patch kit on?
Perhaps he tends a park in which the squirrels throw acorns at parked cars?

I was just going to post about this. He is a frigg'n park ranger with a macho man complex. Look into his history and he may have not qualified to be a cop. I am not anti cop, I am anti gestapo.