Law Enforcement Use (VLOS Sight)

[BigAl07]

Al to answer your question in a general sense of he law, if your are operating lawfully under the exigency exception to that warrant requirement than you are lawfully present where you are recording from. This triggers the plain view doctrine. Anything you observe from that plain view should be admissible. There really wouldn’t be much difference if you put a scout sniper in the same position to get eyes on and they witnessed the same crime occur through the scope.

Thank you for your insight. It's greatly appreciated.

 

[KMF294]

BigAl07:

Due to us being in Florida.... And having the "Unwarranted Surveillance Act" over our heads, the Command is requesting that an SD card NOT BE IN PLACE. Meaning as of now, we are just using it as "Situational Awareness".... No recordings are being made or even have the ability ... This is to ease the public's mind as no recording are being made and we are only interested in the specific incident at hand... Once we get a warrant, I think things and laws change as far as "If He Commits A Crime" while we are flying Situational Awareness.. The Warrant should cover anything that is viewed or recorded beings we have a WARRANT ... And I use that term in BOLD... Because having a warrant will change everything for us here in Florida.. As I posted before, it is really nice having an Asst. State Attorney in-house, with his own office, for us to run in and tell him what we have. We are working on blanket warrants (missing just the address, probable cause, and type incident) so it makes it faster for him to approve the warrant and get it signed by a Judge.. I watched a video from Modesto California... They have a Crime Scene Unit that is using the DRONE to chase burglar suspects and walk Officers into the suspects position (basically acting just like the LEO Helicopter)..

.. I WISH we had such lenient laws here !!!!!!! We can not even take photos at our Crime Scenes unless we have a warrant.. Traffic Fatalities, evidence markers, large scale shootings.. Unless we get a warrant, the laws look at photos as "GATHERING EVIDENCE".. I HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS, BUT THEY DONT MATTER.,... LOL...

KMF294, Your response is exactly the avenue we are taking as of now, until we can get the laws changed or at least re-worded here in Florida...

Everyone be safe, and this is a GREAT THREAD for all Law Enforcement Officers... Its amazing on the fluctuations of laws from state to state pertaining to a UAS...

Agreed.....great thread. And here I was thinking that the laws in Massachusetts were overly restrictive.

 

[KMF294]

Thank you for your insight. It's greatly appreciated.

Anytime. I may be asking you for insight as we get our drones active for my SWAT Team if you don’t mind.

 

[BigAl07]

Anytime. I may be asking you for insight as we get our drones active for my SWAT Team if you don’t mind.

I'm always willing to help when/if I can. We all started at ground zero. I've had many great minds and souls helping me along the way throughout the years. The least I can do is try to help someone else out.

 

[Southern Style]

The problem we are encountering here in Florida, is the man versus unmanned rule. We CAN photograph crime scenes from a helicopter at 50 feet but can NOT photograph the same scenes at 50 feet with an unmanned aerial vehicle. So if a sniper were on a roof, and the Drone was photographing from the same location as the sniper, that might be where they are separating Man versus unmanned. Not positive, but just a thought from what I am hearing from the state attorney and the wording of Unwarranted Surveillance Act... that might not be the case, but this "Act" really has our hands tied. So much left for intinterpretation..

 

[KMF294]

The problem we are encountering here in Florida, is the man versus unmanned rule. We CAN photograph crime scenes from a helicopter at 50 feet but can NOT photograph the same scenes at 50 feet with an unmanned aerial vehicle. So if a sniper were on a roof, and the Drone was photographing from the same location as the sniper, that might be where they are separating Man versus unmanned. Not positive, but just a thought from what I am hearing from the state attorney and the wording of Unwarranted Surveillance Act... that might not be the case, but this "Act" really has our hands tied. So much left for intinterpretation..

Sorry to hear that. We are a little behind in sin far as I don’t think there is a team in the state actually deploying drones yet. I’m sure once it happens we will be inundated with unnecessary rules

 

[Boefinator]

BigAl07:

Due to us being in Florida.... And having the "Unwarranted Surveillance Act" over our heads, the Command is requesting that an SD card NOT BE IN PLACE. Meaning as of now, we are just using it as "Situational Awareness".... No recordings are being made or even have the ability ... This is to ease the public's mind as no recording are being made and we are only interested in the specific incident at hand... Once we get a warrant, I think things and laws change as far as "If He Commits A Crime" while we are flying Situational Awareness.. The Warrant should cover anything that is viewed or recorded beings we have a WARRANT ... And I use that term in BOLD... Because having a warrant will change everything for us here in Florida.. As I posted before, it is really nice having an Asst. State Attorney in-house, with his own office, for us to run in and tell him what we have. We are working on blanket warrants (missing just the address, probable cause, and type incident) so it makes it faster for him to approve the warrant and get it signed by a Judge.. I watched a video from Modesto California... They have a Crime Scene Unit that is using the DRONE to chase burglar suspects and walk Officers into the suspects position (basically acting just like the LEO Helicopter)..

.. I WISH we had such lenient laws here !!!!!!! We can not even take photos at our Crime Scenes unless we have a warrant.. Traffic Fatalities, evidence markers, large scale shootings.. Unless we get a warrant, the laws look at photos as "GATHERING EVIDENCE".. I HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS, BUT THEY DONT MATTER.,... LOL...

KMF294, Your response is exactly the avenue we are taking as of now, until we can get the laws changed or at least re-worded here in Florida...

Everyone be safe, and this is a GREAT THREAD for all Law Enforcement Officers... Its amazing on the fluctuations of laws from state to state pertaining to a UAS...

Everyone gives us California LEO's a hard time.....until you want to fly a UAS over a scene, or search a car in the field, or not release body cam videos. Then all of a sudden, it's "wish I had it as good as those California cops"!

 

[Southern Style]

Everyone gives us California LEO's a hard time.....until you want to fly a UAS over a scene, or search a car in the field, or not release body cam videos. Then all of a sudden, it's "wish I had it as good as those California cops"!

LOL,,,, Aint that always how it goes....