My neighbor keeps calling the police

[Slade]

Well, firstly, it’s sad that you’re being harassed by an ignorant neighbor. You have my sympathy. You’ve received lots of advice so I won’t burden you with more suggestions—except for this: Fly with a clear conscience in the knowledge you’re being respectful and within your rights. Happy flying.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

i have a similar issue with a neighbor who knows i can see through her roof and see what she is doing,

Well THAT neighbour is probably a totally lost cause situation [emoji1]

The tin foil head (hat?) idea is good, suggest wide brim so you can’t see her nekid from the top down.

Oblique shots ?

I sympathise with the op desire to fly after work from home for a bit of fun / relax after a long day.
Maybe take a flight path out and back avoiding this persons home (IF location is known).

The cut telephone wire sort of sounds like Bills neighbour, lost cause.

 

[PointJoe]

Have you thought about being nice about it? You may be legally correct but you're making enemies and therefore no progress. Why not try to find a way to listen to the angry neighbor. Find out why he's against drones. Ask him if he wants to learn about them. Let him watch you fly. Offer to let him try it. Ask if he needs his lawn mowed. Do whatever it takes to see things from his point of view. Be a friend to make a friend ...

 

[SkyDogII]

Thanks again guys. Still waiting for a call back from the PO community relations guy. I’ve cAlled him 3 times. I think I’m going to make a trip to the Office after work tonight.

 

[superstarpup]

Double up. Fly over his house in the morning, fly over it in the evening. Fly legally and record each flight in its entirety. Really no different than driving down the street in front of his house.

Eventually the cops will get sick of the calls. They can get a false reporting charge to stick against him much easier than they can a nuisance charge against you.

 

[dronerdave]

The neighbor is most likely a lost cause and will never see any other view point other than his own. As with your local P.D. you be better off appealing to their sense of the rule of law. I would ask to meet with someone from the command staff (Lt or higher) and discuss the issue. Make sure you bring several articles about drone use (positive ones) and printed out pages of the FAA rules and regulations for hobbyist and commercial operators. You want to present yourself as an informed and complaint flyer and not some loose cannon. Your neighbor has already earned that title (loose cannon) and by taking this approach you will put the burden of proof of neglectful operation of your drone on the neighbor and not you defending yourself each time a call is made. Many times people only hear the sound of a drone and think its over their house, just like gun fire, not knowing the facts of how sound travels. But again, you want to take the pressure off yourself and place it on the caller that is complaining. If he is the only one calling, P.D. will become aware of this only being a neighbor dispute and will leave it alone and advise the caller to seek other legal action. No lawyer wants to get involved in a he said she said deal with no clear laws/rules being violated.

Well put. Get ahead of the neighbor. The idea is to make the neighbor appear to be the problem but let the PD do so. Still I'd probably just look for a different place to fly but if they give you the green light for flight, get a name from the PD who authorized your flight so you have someone backing you up if the PD responds to your door. Not all info makes it down from upper management to the folks with boots on the ground. An officer will pay more attention if you have that info and if you treat them with respect, you'll probably get better results. Coming off as an entitlement type person doesn't help whether you're right or wrong.

 

[superstarpup]

Well put. Get ahead of the neighbor. The idea is to make the neighbor appear to be the problem but let the PD do so. Still I'd probably just look for a different place to fly but if they give you the green light for flight, get a name from the PD who authorized your flight so you have someone backing you up if the PD responds to your door. Not all info makes it down from upper management to the folks with boots on the ground. An officer will pay more attention if you have that info and if you treat them with respect, you'll probably get better results. Coming off as an entitlement type person doesn't help whether you're right or wrong.

Agree on making the complainant the problem, but the pd can not authorize flights.

 

[SkyDogII]

" Coming off as an entitlement type person doesn't help whether you're right or wrong. "
that's not the case at all!

The PO agreed with me every time they came out. They started giving me a bad time when I told them they should come down on the neighbor for his continued calls and wasting police resources. That's when they started talking "nuisance calls and we will need to charge you the next time we come out."

 

[harle83]

Hey guys,
Got a little problem and it starting to escalate. So I need some advice. What would you do??

ok so I live in a big city, LA, yeah a crap hole. I know. But I’m in Burbank. Much nicer. ?

so I’ve been flying for recreational enjoyment for the last couple of months.

2 months ago, some guy stalked my drone when it landed in my backyard. He came to my front door and confronted me about flying over his house. Whatever, I get it. Some peeps don’t like drones. No problem. He told me thatI flew in his backyard and cut his telephone wire. I told him he was incorrect and if my M2Z has hit his telephone wires it would be laying him his backyard.

Anyway. This clown has called the po po (the police, the man, the fuzz, etc....) on me for the last 5 flights.

anyway, the cops rolled up on me Again yesterday. This time they sent out the watch commander to play tough guy.

I laid into them this time. They roll up and say did you call the police. Their dispatch for it wrong and thought my house had called them. Well I don’t need the police. I have my own protection and can take card of any situation. Back on point, I showed them the Kittyhawk app, my approval to fly as a recreational pilot, the DJI go app and the flight telemetry, and my iPhone screen recording (I prefer to screen record my flight just in case anything happens and I don’t have any
Live video).

they agreed that I followed all the correct procedures and rules

what I have a problem about is at the very end of my conversation with the 3 police officers.
This guy had the ( Mod Removed) to tell me that this incident could be related to a nuisance incident because they have to keep coming out to my location. they tried to relate it to a house burglar alarm that goes off on nuisance calls. They told me they were going to charge me if they had to come out to my house again. I told them flat out that was a bunch of crap since I wasn’t the one that was reporting the drone flying over the house. I told them they need to go speak with the guy that called in the complaint. So they could educate him about the laws and that if he called in again he was going to be the one to get charged for the nuisance. They didn’t like me taking back. They started to get a little more aggressive. I told them that I was done, this is ba, and get off
My property and I went back in the house. My wife was pissed that I just walked away.

so I came back they gave me some phone number to call for police relations. Left two messages. No reply back. Called the popo again to make sure I had the right guy, yeah I do.

so here it is. Besides not flying intentionally or unintentionally over this neighbors house, what advise can you give me. I’ve already tried to make contact with the popo like I said.
There are no rules saying I can’t fly in my area. I always get LAANCE approval because I am near an airport. I don’t do stupid stuff. But his clown down the street is killing my fun time.

what suggestions do you have for me

Thanks for the help.
Skydog4
Dog out

My reaction to this is different. If I were the neighbor and or the Police, I would in a considerate way explain my rights and that the neighboor was incorrect. The “po po” are the police, walking away only escalated the situation and makes you the bad actor here. Yes keep records of your flights and be ready to show them. You have your documentation, good on you. Your attitude needs to be different right or wrong because of where it could lead. I’m not saying you’re wrong or right. I know I’d rather no get in car in cuffs or have an uninformed officer take one of my drones. The high road is often the road less traveled but I have found it’s always the better choice. Clear it up and clean it up. One person can make a huge difference in how we are perceived as a group, good or bad. Good Luck to you.

 

[SkyDogII]

I’ve already done that harle83. I’ve explained it to them and shown them how the app works, how you get a LAANCE request, and have even shown then the drone. And the PO agrees with me each time. This isnt the first rodeo with the police.
I got mad when they started saying nuisance and were going to charge me the next time they came out.

 

[Mossiback]

...I got mad when they started saying nuisance and were going to charge me the next time they came out.

I would too. It seems they would be charging the wrong person. I can see your neighbor calling when he sees any drone. It seems to me that the PO would have to witness you flying it to charge you with anything.

 

[Whitwellian]

About 13 years ago, before drones with cameras were easily available to the public, I had the idea that I'd walk round my village in the UK and take pictures of all of the streets to show what it looked like in 2006. As I went down one street near to where I lived a guy shouted at me "Wothcer doin' - yer karnt tek pictures a my 'ouse" (what are you doing, you can't take pictures of my house).

I explained that I had a little project to show what the village looked like in the early 21st century to which he objected as I explained that as far as current regulations were concerns, I had every right to do it as long as I stayed on the public road. I left the discussion at that point and walked away rather than make matters worse.

I decided to head home and let things cool down, but he had other ideas as he jumped into his car ans followed me at speed, even mounting the pavement in front of me to continue the conversation.

I decided to let the project die after that event.

I had to smile to myself a year or sow later as the Google Earth and Street View was started and there are some lovely views of the front of his property.

So, some people will complain, even when you're doing your best to comply with regulations.

 

[Jaspar]

Thank you for all the advise guys I’ve got to consider how far I want to push this.

I will for sure speak with the police public relations guy for his opinion.

I like to fly for a quickie around the neighborhood after work some days. That’s mainly how this all started.
Thanks again

skydog

 

[Jaspar]

Flying is not fun when you people try and rob you of that freedom. But many peeps idea of their rights is different

 

[SkyDogII]

Ok Mods. You can close this thread now.
PO just shut me down.
came to my house while I wasn’t there.
wife had to deal with them. What a joke.
Looks like they’ve got me for flying within 60 feet of overhead power lines. They are also trying to push that I can’t fly over moving cars.

So that basically shoots down the neighborhood flights.

I’ll need to drive down the street to an open field. But it’s close to the 134 freeway, so I need to see what the deal is with flying close to that and what the legal distance is.
Anyway. Thanks again for all the posts.

That’s all Folks!

for sale: M2z .... hahaha. jk

 

[AMann]

There’s a couple more logs in the fire.
And the winner was...

But really, the poor guy never had a chance l- OP lives in a town where their PD acts as the drone czars- check out their municipal drone laws:

https://www.burbankpd.org/assets/1/7/BMC_-_Drones.pdf

 

[superstarpup]

What do they think the minimum height above power lines is? Or do they prefer you fly under them?

 

[SkyDogII]

looks like I lost

They said 60 feet distance in any direction

 

[AMann]

What do they think the minimum height above power lines is?

See my post above... #56

 

[superstarpup]

looks like I lost

They said 60 feet distance in any direction

did they cite a source for that? And how do they know you were under their arbitrary threshold?