Police called after flying in my own backyard

[Dingo]

A few weeks ago my new mavic pro ND filters arrived so i thought i would try them out with a quick flight in my backyard. I never flew outside my property fence line and only max alt 25 Metres. One hour later two police arrive and say someone complained about my drone and also his bodycam was filming me. I explained I was allowed to fly in my own yard , not in a No fly zone and by law could go up to 120 M but i only flew at 20M. They wanted to see my footage but i declined. They took my details , also asked me if I was aware a preschool was nearby , so its likely a staff member assumed i was filming kids and called the police. It stressed me out for a day . Police emailed the next day saying I had nothing to worry about.

 

[lmel2005]

Paranoia.
In a world where everyone is carrying a camera even when sleeping, people are afraid of a flying camera.

I'm surprised finding out, that people have a strong feeling of privacy, until they see a drone flying.

We live in Matrix. Ignorance is our happiness.

 

[Drone_guy]

Wow....

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

― George Carlin

 

[TrayBoz]

I think you handled that well. I fly out of my own backyard all the time and I live in a crowded suburban neighborhood. So far I've had no complaints. (Knock on wood.) I have to fly over my neighbor's houses to get to the nearby park & lake, so I fly high, fast, and try not to stop over anyone's home.

A few of my neighbors, whom I'm friends with, know I have the drone and occasionally will comment that "they saw it whiz overhead a few days ago" and smile with a hint of "I want one" (the men), or roll-their-eyes with a hint of "You can't have one!" (the women).

* I DID once have a neighborhood wife tell me at a late-night block party, "If i ever see that thing flying over my house, I'm going to shoot it down."

I just smiled casually and said to her, "Well you can do whatever you want, Mrs. Pang, but remember that discharging a fire-arm in the city limits is a Class C Felony in this state. Personally, I try not to commit felonies when I know I'm in front of a 4K video camera, but that's me." I kept smiling so it wasn't taken with any offense.

That shut her up.

Just out of curiosity, why did you choose to decline to show your footage to the officers? I think I would have at least shown them a clip from my iPad, so they could see exactly what I was doing. I bet if they saw first hand the innocence of our hobby, that they'd be more likely to care less (and respond less) to phone calls about drones in your area.

 

[DanMan32]

Maybe they were interested in the hobby and it was an excuse to see how good the camera is.
It was nice of them emailing you that you were OK.

 

[mikemoose55]

I fully agree in not showing the police the footage. There used to be a thought in America any way that you are inocent untill proven guilty. Think of this in terms of your automobile, someone drops a dime on your licence plate no and says you cut them off or were speeding etc. The cops find you ask some questions and in the process of interviewing you they ask if they can search your car........
you are not charged with anything, not under arrest, not even detained under the guise of officer safety.
You have done absolutely nothing wrong and you know your car is clean.....do you give the police permission to search your car??????????

You did the right thing, the video is yours and under your control unless some greater authority over rules you. In a he said she said situation the playing field is level and never give your opponent the opportunity to change the balance by your own hand.

Lastly before you possibly think I am anti police or such I would tell you my son is a law officer with 22 years of service.
mikemoose55

 

[aokusman]

You need to fly high. If I was your neighbor I would not like to see your low flying drone watching me.

 

[charliesRig]

#Mytwocents

Try not to fly when children or school is in nearby Play area
Get some "Lower Noise Props" and Fly high out of your neigborhood
.........cR
.

 

[AMann]

EDIT: Just realized you must be in the UK- its too bad, but Americans don’t speak in metric terms nor do we spell it “metres”. So your laws relating to my post below may be different than mine in the US...

It does sound like the school called the police. Even though it’s legal to take photos nearby schools, and even of a school from the street, teachers do fear the worse and can get really upset about it - (I’m a photographer and a teacher, too) - so don’t take it personally, they are just being protective with good reason. Perhaps you can offer to do a presentation at the school? Just a thought- we had a career day and some pilots and HAM radio guys came to ours. The students loved it. Let the school know who you are and maybe see your footage to show them you are far enough away that the kids are indescribable if you accidentally point it towards them.

 

[Bigbird48]

We had an incident a few weeks back when this tree company was cutting trees on our street. I took a bunch of videos of them cutting down the trees and got to know some of the workers. While having lunch one day I saw a cop car parked across the street and a bunch of the tree workers and cops running around and into the woods, I went out to see what all the hub bud was about and one of the guys said someone stole a new chain saw from the tree guys. I put my drone up figuring I could see and cover a lot more area from the air the guys running around on the ground.Well I never saw and bad guys and the cops never found them,but one of the cops came over as I was bringing the drone down and asked if he could see it. I said sure and flew the drone over pretty close and they were all saying how cool it was. One of the cops asked how hard it was to fly, so I handed him the remote and told him to go easy with the sticks. He got a real kick outta flying it around a little. Of course now he wants one LOL

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[AMann]

We had an incident a few weeks back when this tree company was cutting trees on our street. I took a bunch of videos of them cutting down the trees and got to know some of the workers. While having lunch one day I saw a cop car parked across the street and a bunch of the tree workers and cops running around and into the woods, I went out to see what all the hub bud was about and one of the guys said someone stole a new chain saw from the tree guys. I put my drone up figuring I could see and cover a lot more area from the air the guys running around on the ground.Well I never saw and bad guys and the cops never found them,but one of the cops came over as I was bringing the drone down and asked if he could see it. I said sure and flew the drone over pretty close and they were all saying how cool it was. One of the cops asked how hard it was to fly, so I handed him the remote and told him to go easy with the sticks. He got a real kick outta flying it around a little. Of course now he wants one LOL

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

+1 for good public drone relations

But photography at work sites is sometimes tricky. I had the oppisite reaction once from a construction manager I was working with at a site for CalTrans. People in my position at the time usually just watch to be sure there were no environmental related issues on site, but I love photography so was legally taking a lot of photos while working at the job site, too. The manager wierdly followed me around all day and then then made up poop about me and got me kicked out the next day. Reviewing my photos with CalTran’s resident engineer showed why- they had made quite an few job related OSHA violations that I didn’t know about (construction related equipment issues, fall protection, etc).

For those who do ever want to take photos at job sites, it sounds like BigBird did the right thing- talk with the people on the ground first and let them know what you are doing- they may not like what you do with the photos later, like in my case, but your time shooting it will be much better!

 

[Bigbird48]

I got the tree guys emails and sent then the videos. They really thought it was cool and had never seen themselves working from the air like that.

 

[Dingo]

I think you handled that well. I fly out of my own backyard all the time and I live in a crowded suburban neighborhood. So far I've had no complaints. (Knock on wood.) I have to fly over my neighbor's houses to get to the nearby park & lake, so I fly high, fast, and try not to stop over anyone's home.

A few of my neighbors, whom I'm friends with, know I have the drone and occasionally will comment that "they saw it whiz overhead a few days ago" and smile with a hint of "I want one" (the men), or roll-their-eyes with a hint of "You can't have one!" (the women).

* I DID once have a neighborhood wife tell me at a late-night block party, "If i ever see that thing flying over my house, I'm going to shoot it down."

I just smiled casually and said to her, "Well you can do whatever you want, Mrs. Pang, but remember that discharging a fire-arm in the city limits is a Class C Felony in this state. Personally, I try not to commit felonies when I know I'm in front of a 4K video camera, but that's me." I kept smiling so it wasn't taken with any offense.

That shut her up.

Just out of curiosity, why did you choose to decline to show your footage to the officers? I think I would have at least shown them a clip from my iPad, so they could see exactly what I was doing. I bet if they saw first hand the innocence of our hobby, that they'd be more likely to care less (and respond less) to phone calls about drones in your area.

I chose not to show them the footage because i had not viewed it myself and my phone battery was flat and on charge but i did not want any footage taken out of context and used against me. i did a 360 rotation and took maybe 20 random photos so there was bound to be one looking in the direction of the preschool. Years of watching on TV shows like law and order taught me not to offer up anything that could be used against me. I actually felt intimidated when he pointed to his body camera and said anything I say is recorded and can be used against me.
It did not occur to me at the time but the DJI flight record could have proved i did not fly outside of my property boundry.

 

[neggy]

. One of the cops asked how hard it was to fly, so I handed him the remote and told him to go easy with the sticks. He got a real kick outta flying it around a little. Of course now he wants one LOL

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

A member of my local department stumbled upon me taking pictures of a church at night, I had
my car parked with the headlights on the building to reduce shadows from trees. We spent about 30 minutes talking about the drone and what it could do.

I also went down to an event the cops were doing this summer and shot some pictures and gave the pictures for them to use for publicity.

While I was there we were discussing the application of drones in law enforcement and how several departments near us in Southern NH were getting Officer Part 107 licensed and had bought drones for peeking around where they could not get to easily.

I told them I would be happy to help them in any way I could should they ever wanted to explore the 107 route .

 

[ac0j]

The police have to make an appearance when ever they are called, they need to record the contact to prove they did it if the original complainer calls again. I bet its the same in the UK. You complied perfectly.

I fully agree in not showing the police the footage. There used to be a thought in America any way that you are inocent untill proven guilty. Think of this in terms of your automobile, someone drops a dime on your licence plate no and says you cut them off or were speeding etc. The cops find you ask some questions and in the process of interviewing you they ask if they can search your car........
you are not charged with anything, not under arrest, not even detained under the guise of officer safety.
You have done absolutely nothing wrong and you know your car is clean.....do you give the police permission to search your car??????????

You did the right thing, the video is yours and under your control unless some greater authority over rules you. In a he said she said situation the playing field is level and never give your opponent the opportunity to change the balance by your own hand.

Lastly before you possibly think I am anti police or such I would tell you my son is a law officer with 22 years of service.
mikemoose55

Do you have any idea how many people are sitting in a jail cell right now awaiting a trial to find out if they are proven innocent? Then include the people out on bail for the same thing. Innocent until proven guilty my ***.

Have you ever asked your son what HE does when he is denied a look in a vehicle? Ask what he does if he thinks he smells something, or if he sees something questionable partially sticking out from under a seat. You can refuse the search, and wait for the dogs or the warrant. Not a big deal if you have an hour to blow. But allow the search, most of the time, they wont even do it, if they DO you are still on your way in 5 minutes (if you arent a criminal)

 

[mikemoose55]

The police have to make an appearance when ever they are called, they need to record the contact to prove they did it if the original complainer calls again. I bet its the same in the UK. You complied perfectly.



Do you have any idea how many people are sitting in a jail cell right now awaiting a trial to find out if they are proven innocent? Then include the people out on bail for the same thing. Innocent until proven guilty my ***.

Have you ever asked your son what HE does when he is denied a look in a vehicle? Ask what he does if he thinks he smells something, or if he sees something questionable partially sticking out from under a seat. You can refuse the search, and wait for the dogs or the warrant. Not a big deal if you have an hour to blow. But allow the search, most of the time, they wont even do it, if they DO you are still on your way in 5 minutes (if you arent a criminal)

i don't think you and I will ever see eye to eye but I try to understand your point of view.

 

[choo choo]

A few weeks ago my new mavic pro ND filters arrived so i thought i would try them out with a quick flight in my backyard. I never flew outside my property fence line and only max alt 25 Metres. One hour later two police arrive and say someone complained about my drone and also his bodycam was filming me. I explained I was allowed to fly in my own yard , not in a No fly zone and by law could go up to 120 M but i only flew at 20M. They wanted to see my footage but i declined. They took my details , also asked me if I was aware a preschool was nearby , so its likely a staff member assumed i was filming kids and called the police. It stressed me out for a day . Police emailed the next day saying I had nothing to worry about.

I can understand why the cops were called, there is an almost paranoia in the U.K. about pointing cameras at school children. We hear almost daily reports about teachers and head teachers kicking off about some perceived issue. We have heard of reports that head teachers say nobody can take photos of their little ones at school sports days for fear the photos might get into unscrupulous hands. Of course if you are on school property you need permission, but not from a public place, so what looks more suspicious, someone, a parent? poking the camera lens from the school fence, or a parent enjoying their children competing in a school sports day and capturing the memories of her/him with their pals while still young enough to enjoy it.
It’s about time the hand wringing, bleeding heart ,virtue signaling ,coloured wrist band wearing community grew up themselves. The police have enough to do as I is trying to catch real criminals.

 

[choo choo]

A few weeks ago my new mavic pro ND filters arrived so i thought i would try them out with a quick flight in my backyard. I never flew outside my property fence line and only max alt 25 Metres. One hour later two police arrive and say someone complained about my drone and also his bodycam was filming me. I explained I was allowed to fly in my own yard , not in a No fly zone and by law could go up to 120 M but i only flew at 20M. They wanted to see my footage but i declined. They took my details , also asked me if I was aware a preschool was nearby , so its likely a staff member assumed i was filming kids and called the police. It stressed me out for a day . Police emailed the next day saying I had nothing to worry about.

My job is occasionally pretty gruesome dealing with suicides and suicidal people, I had just finished one very messy ‘ job’ and was called to another who hadn’t yet carried it out.
She, (it’s usually a he), was only 14 and in a very remote location near the railway (hence why I’m called choo choo). There were considerable police resources tied up trying to locate her, and considerable danger to the officers who are not railway trained, to be on or near a live railway. I had my personal drone with me, just in case I had some ‘down-time’ later. And asked the officers if they’d like me to get her up and use her as an aerial platform.
At 400ft (we still use feet, miles and ounces) in the U.K. despite what Europe keep telling us we should do) we could see huge areas which would have taken hours to search.
Happy to say I spotted her within 5 minutes and the officers stood near me directed colleagues to the spot to get her to safety.
The Police officers had never seen a drone before and were fully supportive, they all had a look at the video feed and were amazed at the clarity and the ease of deployment.

It saved massive police resources trying to search such a remote spot, found the young lady very quickly and we didn’t have to mobilise the force helicopter either, quickly bringing the incident to a happy conclusion.
The Police were very impressed and could see the benefits of using a drone. Like anything, it can be used for good or bad, unfortunately nobody likes to read about good news stories, it doesn’t sell papers.

 

[Bigbird48]

I wouldn't want your job.but glad you and your drone had a happy outcome here in this incident

 

[Ozarkwoods]

+1 for good public drone relations

But photography at work sites is sometimes tricky. I had the oppisite reaction once from a construction manager I was working with at a site for CalTrans. People in my position at the time usually just watch to be sure there were no environmental related issues on site, but I love photography so was legally taking a lot of photos while working at the job site, too. The manager wierdly followed me around all day and then then made up poop about me and got me kicked out the next day. Reviewing my photos with CalTran’s resident engineer showed why- they had made quite an few job related OSHA violations that I didn’t know about (construction related equipment issues, fall protection, etc).

For those who do ever want to take photos at job sites, it sounds like BigBird did the right thing- talk with the people on the ground first and let them know what you are doing- they may not like what you do with the photos later, like in my case, but your time shooting it will be much better!

Well, maybe he was worried that an OSHA violation would be spotted and his job site sited for the violation.