Your position is very reasonable. I'll add that, if you're going to argue with a police officer, don't do it in the field. There are so many ways that can go so terribly wrong, I won't get into them all here. I'll just say that it's really important to stay calm and respectful with an officer.
The officer might understand the point you make about the FAA setting the airspace rules, and the city council not having the authority to override them, but his department is probably employed by the city government. As long as there's a written ordinance on the books, he knows his chain of command will back him up when he does his job, which is to enforce the laws that the local government passed.
But suppose you are such a smooth talker that, against all odds, you win the argument and he decides to let you go without writing a ticket -- then what? The ordinance is still on the books, and the next officer you encounter in the same place may write you that ticket.
The ONLY place to argue with a police officer is in the safe, neutral environment of the courtroom, where everything is on public record, and a precedent might even be established. And really, understand that your beef isn't with that particular individual officer in the field, it's with the city council (or park district, whatever) that passed the ordinance which contradicts the FAA's authority.
Another way to fight the issue is to go to the city council meeting and speak to them directly. That's probably cheaper and safer than getting involved with the police and courts.
I will suggest this that may or may not help.
I retired one year ago after over 37 years as a city police officer in Texas. About 4 years ago I helped create and until my retirement commanded our drone unit. I am also a licensed private pilot as well as a Part 107 drone pilot.
All of that doesn’t mean much but I am used to dealing with city councils, legal departments, department policy and familiar with commercial drone operations as well as actual general aviation aircraft.
On occasion I have disagreed with an issue, proposal, city ordinance, etc. I could complain informally and hope someone listens and at least allows me to explain a position. That doesn’t always work.
But…..
There is this little thing we call email. Most people think that it means electronic mail. Nope, the E stands for Evidence. Obviously that isn’t true but essentially it is. Sometimes for a personal belief and sometimes because I did not want to be blamed as a supervisor for failing to supervise, I have fired off emails to all city officials. I could write a paper memorandum if they wish but you can bet that might disappear. I’m going to copy and paste all of it to emails and the mayor, the city manager, the chief, the councilman, etc. will all get copies. It is not even cc’ed. They get added to the direct email.
I have had issues such as this or disagreed with the authority of a city or something similar. A very professionally worded and not accusatory email will sometimes have a profound effect. I have ended several such discussions or situations with an email.
As I said, the email is evidence because they can delete all they want, I could get subpoenas from the carrier and also have my personal and professional email accounts. All you have to do is look at YouTube and any United States Congress hearing and other investigations and see how often they bring emails into it. Typically I even email my personal address when using my departments official email to send to the mayor, chief, etc. That is because my city has a legal authority to control their own internal email accounts including mine and lock them from my view but they can’t get to my personal account.
I might write an email to the city explaining the FAA authority and also any website links (like listed above) that back up a stance. While the individual city council members may or may not care, the legal department might have serious issues with an unlawful ordinance that might cost the city quite a bit of money over an unlawful arrest by an officer upholding the ordinance.
On a couple of occasions I have sent emails and never got an official response but the issue went away.
So, like I said, maybe it will work maybe it won’t. Sending an email to a city legal department, city manager, mayor, chief of police and so on pointing out that they may have passed an unlawful ordinance that may cost them a lot of money in a lawsuit.
With an email as backing, they will have a hard time claiming that they did not know. While that may not stop a lawsuit for an unlawful ordinance, it sure could go into the damage levels if they were told and given official websites to look at showing a potential unlawful activity.
Assuming someone wanted to take that step.
In my opinion…..
