Just got Talked to by the COPS!!!!

[ianwood]

I am sure none of us like someone flying a quad pointing their camera at our bathroom or bedroom window up close.

It seems a lot of people want very badly to jump to this conclusion. Again, paranoia. If ever confronted with this, you have two effective replies:

• "You're not that interesting."
• "If I were spying on you, you would never know about it."

If they still need convincing, you can continue to explain just how stupid it would be to use a drone to spy on someone:

• They're not exactly subtle.
• They run for all of 15 minutes.
• With the GoPro you need to get right up next to something to see it in detail.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

It seems a lot of people want very badly to jump to this conclusion. Again, paranoia. If ever confronted with this, you have two effective replies:

• "You're not that interesting."
• "If I were spying on you, you would never know about it."

If they still need convincing, you can continue to explain just how stupid it would be to use a drone to spy on someone:

• They're not exactly subtle.
• They run for all of 15 minutes.
• With the GoPro you need to get right up next to something to see it in detail.

+1
I have been saying this all along. Besides, I don't need to sneak around to see naked people. I see them all the time at my summer place and most every vacation as my wife & I are nudist. I have been there, done that... theres nothing I haven't seen before.

 

[yawnalot29]

I am sure none of us like someone flying a quad pointing their camera at our bathroom or bedroom window up close.

It seems a lot of people want very badly to jump to this conclusion. Again, paranoia. If ever confronted with this, you have two effective replies:

• "You're not that interesting."
• "If I were spying on you, you would never know about it."

If they still need convincing, you can continue to explain just how stupid it would be to use a drone to spy on someone:

• They're not exactly subtle.
• They run for all of 15 minutes.
• With the GoPro you need to get right up next to something to see it in detail.

For the sake of discussion, let's say you are right with all of those.

Is that going to help with the neighbor calling the police to intervene? They were obviously bothered enough to take action.

Those remarks will only escalate and it is doubtful that it will result in any positive outcome.

But if you feel bravado and sarcastic remark will smooth the way, by all means, go for it.

This isn't about what the P2V/P2V+/GoPro can actually do. At that stage of discussion, IMHO, it has nothing/zero to do with the devices' capability. Arguing / explaining about the capability simply doesn't addresses the neighbor's concern. I seriously doubt the neighbor is aware of all the technical capability of the system nor cares about it.

The neighbor obviously cares about their air space and consider it "theirs". And to the neighbor, this is like your pet running all over their properties.


Everyone is different. I personally don't like if neighbor's kid or pets are on my front lawn even if they don't appear to be causing damage. For me the concerns would be liability for the kid and defecating for the pets, and I would just rather PREVENT it all together and thus I don't want them on my lawn.

Lastly, just a bit of common courtesy. The neighbor obviously don't want the craft over their "airspace". So is there a reason to insist on doing it? That seems to me is just being antagonistic. Fly around it. Cost you nothing.

I would take OP's side if OP was flying over the airspace of public domain and NOT private properties.

 

[J.James]

lol I had an weird situation last night when flying and the cops that actually caused me to crash my phantom pretty hard.

I was out flying in the back alley behind my house for about an hour or so and on my last battery and my last flight. and was bringing her in for a landing because My battery alarm was going off and just as I'm about to land I see a cop car coming down the alley towards me. and I thought oh great here comes the kill joys to shut me down and the last thing I want to do is crash in to the cop car or land in front of it and get the thing run over. But getting real low on power and knew a I had probably a minute or less to get her down safly. and i took her up some. and waiting for this cop to either stop or go past me and hes taking for ever and so I was going to try and land in the big open spot in a drive way of a house a few houses down from me and await what I thought was a visit from the cops to talk to me about flying my phantom. and the cop finely gets past me and as I turn around I see there is already a few more cop cars blocking the other end of the alley. and There are a bunch of cops in the yard of the house whos drive way I was going to land in. and by now I whole minute more has gone by so I try as quick as I can to try and get it back near me and was going to land it. and I'm giving it as much up throttle as I can and its coming down. Then it just went in to free fall from about 40 feet up and smacked hard off the roof of the dam house right next door to where all the cops are at. and made a hell of a loud sound when it hit all the time the battery buzzer is beep beep beeping. only a few feet away from all the cops. I'm thinking oh now thats going to at least get me a stink eye from one of them. Nope not even a flinch from any of them and only one ever turned his head towards the crash bang crash sound off the house and to get to it to see if it was ok I had to walk past all the cops and go around to the front of the house to knock on the neibors door to let him know my thing crashed in to his roof and was stuck in his bushes in his back yard. and ask if it was ok to go in his yard to get it. and still when In in the yard just on the other side of the fence from the cops one even looked over for a second. Then went back to talking to the person whos house they were at. Then when I was walking back around now with the phantom in my hand and had to go by them again. one of them still sitting in his car and the one that came down the alley says "Did it it survive??" "ya it got save by the bush" and "he said wow that thing is tuff and that was it." I was real surprised that even coming that close to crashing in to that swam of cops didn't even get me a single dirty look or any thing at all. There lack of even give one crap well along not giving to craps about it in the least was sort of freaky to say the least.

 

[Ozzyguy]

^ Obviously they had bigger fish to fry.

 

[J.James]

^ Obviously they had bigger fish to fry.

Ya some thing was up in the area yesterday. about right after I went out to fly my old lady was out walking the dog and said there were cops all outside the house out front and left and I driving around the neighbor hood and parked on the ends of the streets. like they were looking for someone.

 

[QYV]

in random, barely-related news I went through 2 airports in the last week with my Phantom 2 kit in my Vanguard backpack, fully expecting to get stopped and at the very least explosive-swiped but TSA didn't even bat an eye.

The x-ray image of the bag was actually pretty cool, wish I could have gotten a picture

 

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Here's my opinion, free of charge, so take it for what's it's worth!

I just do not believe it is a good idea to fly at low altitude over residential areas, especially if you are stopping and hovering. I agree, there is probably no law against it, but I just think it's a bad idea. There are so many places to get beautiful shots, why fly around a boring neighborhood anyway? Many people are automatically suspicious and/or fearful of something they don't understand, sad but true.

If you insist on doing it, fly at 400' and don't hover!

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ozzyguy]

Here's my opinion, free of charge, so take it for what's it's worth!

I just do not believe it is a good idea to fly at low altitude over residential areas, especially if you are stopping and hovering. I agree, there is probably no law against it, but I just think it's a bad idea. There are so many places to get beautiful shots, why fly around a boring neighborhood anyway? Many people are automatically suspicious and/or fearful of something they don't understand, sad but true.

If you insist on doing it, fly at 400' and don't hover!

Just my 2 cents.

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[N017RW]

I plan to fly for weeks (o.k. probably months) with no camera. ( I have a P2)

People will get used to it and pay no mind in a short while.

Plus I have the added beneift of having flown single-rotor craft around my house for 5-6 years when repairing or tuning it.

This does not eliminate the possibility of an accident but does 'numb' the neighbors sort-of-speak.

 

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

I plan to fly for weeks (o.k. probably months) with no camera. ( I have a P2)

People will get used to it and pay no mind in a short while.

Plus I have the added beneift of having flown single-rotor craft around my house for 5-6 years when repairing or tuning it.

This does not eliminate the possibility of an accident but does 'numb' the neighbors sort-of-speak.

Clever! Let us know how that works!

 

[darwin-t]

If I were the original poster, I would probably fly it, but keep it far away from my paranoid neighbor.

 

[Sketch6995]

Holy crap sketch, you are about as paranoid as they come! Equally as paranoid as the woman in the video.

As for the situation at hand, I am a Deputy Sheriff (run Sketch) who is obviously a "drone" pilot as well. I keep myself as up to date on "drone" laws because I love flying them. While most peace officers are still in the dark about "drone law", as are most everyone else, they do know all about "disturbing the peace" issues. The woman in the video was at peace before she picked up the phone to report someone flying over house. While she is obviously paranoid and uneducated about what what these things are actually capable of doing, she does have a right to her peace, as does everyone in the neighborhood.

An on-duty peace officer cannot have their peace disturbed, as we are not at peace the moment we check on the radio. In a case like this, they have to be an advocate for the person whose peace is being disturbed.

The interaction between the officer and pilot should have gone something more like:
"Hello, I am here because someone reported suspicious activity involving you and your device. They are concerned about you flying over their house. I realize that as of now, this is not a crime, and I know how much fun they can be, you have to understand that the people in this neighborhood have a right to their peace... Which you are currently disturbing. At this point the caller just wants you to stop and find a new place to fly (somewhere that is not over houses if possible). They haven't requested to be a victim at this point, they just want it stopped. They do however have the right to be a victim of disturbing the peace, which would believe it or not, mean an arrest. A charge of DTP is a misdemeanor charge, and while it is a paper arrest, it would require you to appear before a judge. I am trying to keep this from going that route by simply asking you to move on to a place where you too can fly in peace. Deal?"

Okay Sketch, you can come back out. I am leaving.

HA, no one was hiding from you, ive been in the desert flying my quad lol, i did NOT mean to imply i hate law enforcement, i dont, to do so would be to hate my entire family, but i do NOT offer them one single word. my motto when cops are around is STFU. I cant even call a cop when one is warrented, if i saw jeffrey dahmer having a buffet at the city park, i'd probably just walk the hell away, lol, DO NOT SPEAK. they might stuff you in the back of their car to scare you, but when i was 9 my dad was a cop in belfast northern ireland, i was throwing rocks at a british tank with an irish boy older than me, standing on top of a brick wall in an alley when the tank shot the wall out from under us, i was buried in that pile of bricks for 6 hrs, sean died, he was 12.
after that, i fear NO man.
you should come to colorado, lets go fly!! that is a true invitation not a veiled threat btw......
oh and another thing. i did a study once and i came to the conclusion that between the hours of 9pm and 3am, 80% of the people that have contact with law enforcement have felony records. go home and go to bed and stop doing your dirties in the middle of the night. lmao

 

[Phantom_Menace66]

Re: Just got busted by the COPS!!!!

they said i could no longer fly because my neighbors are filing a civil suite against me

I'd be inclined to file a civil suite against them for playing the Banjo & foot stomping at all hours of the night...

 

[GMANNZ]

This paranoia is getting to epical South PArk levels .... I just cant stop laughing at those videos of wierd women complaining, they are hysterical ... she flatters herself a little to much Im thinking that someone would be looking at her ... yikes .... :lol:

 

[cosmonaut]

I have a FC40 Phantom and I was testing out the the WIFI range with the New Amped repter ,
Well what happen is that the neighbor was down the road said that I was filming there kids that happen to be outside at the time. this broke out to a big ordeal ,to where the son of the house hopped in his truck and hunted me down to talk **** to me for being a (pedifile). I live in Tennessee and I have the right to fly on my property , After a lot a **** talk and threats to me and my wife, they left but they stated that they Knew the law and said that I was in violelation of there rights . after about 2 hours a Cop knocked on the door , said that we needed to go outside and talk about my (flying machine) The cop told me that I have no rights to fly my quad at our around my house and that I could only fly at a AMA air flied, I ask the cop what law did I break and what was i being question for, (they could not give me a answer) the cop ending up telling if i fly my quad again that he what get me for (harassment) and book me at the county jail. So there you go I have No Idea what to do , there is no law about flying my quad and my neighbor are just feeling off the drone **** , any help would be great

Thanks
Michael

I would talk to the parents show them the quadcopter and explain how it works and the FOV is to wide to make out people or faces and maybe even show it to their kids. This is all dependent on the parents and their nature of course. Let them know your intentions wasn't to invade anyone's privacy.
In my area I haven't ran into any problems most are more curious than mad. If it still escalates into a bigger issue I feel sorry for the parents for being such idiots.

 

[thongbong]

I heard Nancy Reagan is starting something called Drone Awareness Resistance Education and is touting the Phantom as a gateway drone. There are already many scientist and doctors who think the Phantom is a drone that leads to peepingtomism, terrorism, and eventually animal sacrifice.

 

[QYV]

I heard Nancy Reagan is starting something called Drone Awareness Resistance Education and is touting the Phantom as a gateway drone. There are already many scientist and doctors who think the Phantom is a drone that leads to peepingtomism, terrorism, and eventually animal sacrifice.

I laughed

 

[GMANNZ]

I heard Nancy Reagan is starting something called Drone Awareness Resistance Education and is touting the Phantom as a gateway drone. There are already many scientist and doctors who think the Phantom is a drone that leads to peepingtomism, terrorism, and eventually animal sacrifice.

I spat coffee ...... :lol:

 

[Ozzyguy]

Omg just watched the videos. Grandma is all over the shop. First vid she states it the "drone" was flying from front of house to front of house. Next vid all of a sudden its circling each house. And dragging up 911 was just tasteless. Then to compare it to firearm ownership is a long bow to draw if you'll excuse the pun Permits are in most cases required for firearms. So why do criminals have them? Because by their very nature they don't give a fcuk(Deliberately misspelled about the law. Someone casing your home out for a B and E will not be so obvious. Ive seen people doing it and its very subtle. it happens almost daily unnoticed for a reason. People don't want to attract attention while scoping out a potential Break and Enter. Next point. Most crimes are crimes of opportunity not complex operations planned with military precision with 'drones' and google earth like in the movies.
Next in the dragnet are paedophiles. Again most of them have learned to be quite discreet.
Hmm what else convicted criminals. People who have served their sentence and reformed are entitled to get on with their lives. Should everyone who has served time be banned from buying jimmy bars, knives, zip ties, screwdrivers, cars, mobile phones, cameras with zoom lenses, or anything that could conceivably be used in the commission of a crime? Or be forced to get a permit for each? The illusion of safety to quote fight club is a powerful thing in feeble peoples minds distracting them from the real dangers of society.