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I'm reminded of the old adage that there's no situation that can't be made worse by involving the police. Sure, it may be the case that the drone owner wins the

I'm reminded of the old adage that there's no situation that can't be made worse by involving the police. Sure, it may be the case that the drone owner wins the legal case, but if this behaviour persists, and if shooting the thing down becomes impossible, owning drones may become impossible too. Frankly I would prefer a world where the solution to dickheads messing around with drones is that the drone gets blown out of the air to a world where the government decide that drones need to be heavily regulated. (A place I rather suspect we'll end up in if this behaviour becomes widespread.)

swasheck 11y ago
i have a hard time understanding how the police could/would help. "what did the perpetrator look like" "well. it was hovering and had a camera and just hung out in my backyard. i asked it to leave but it didnt." so then do the police launch a full-scale invasive search of the neighborhood to find evidence of a drone owner? then we have two problems --- we have government overreach or we have unbridled menacing and trespassing, unless i'm failing to see a mediating position.
- jameshart 11y ago
  Ah - I think you just gave me the insight I had been missing into why America seems to have issues trusting the police, and consider self-help as a necessary supplement to calling the cops. You think of them as an active preventive measure - they have to get to the scene of the crime and actively stop it. A more useful police function is to investigate and prosecute offences after the fact. If you know you won't get away with doing something, you'll be discouraged from doing it. In this case, what are the cops going to do? How about follow the drone, figure out who it belongs to, then go and have a word with them? Is 'conducting a criminal investigation' government overreach?
  - imh 11y ago
    The point is the drone will be gone by the time the police arrive, so there is no drone to follow.
    - swasheck 11y ago
      thanks for clarifying my position.
ams6110 11y ago
Fully agree. Likely the drone is long gone before the police arrive, and if it isn't, what are they going to do about it? Shoot it down is about all they can do, unless someone comes up with some kind of EMP drone disabler.

swasheck 11y ago

i have a hard time understanding how the police could/would help. "what did the perpetrator look like" "well. it was hovering and had a camera and just hung out in my backyard. i asked it to leave but it didnt." so then do the police launch a full-scale invasive search of the neighborhood to find evidence of a drone owner? then we have two problems --- we have government overreach or we have unbridled menacing and trespassing, unless i'm failing to see a mediating position.

jameshart 11y ago
Ah - I think you just gave me the insight I had been missing into why America seems to have issues trusting the police, and consider self-help as a necessary supplement to calling the cops. You think of them as an active preventive measure - they have to get to the scene of the crime and actively stop it. A more useful police function is to investigate and prosecute offences after the fact. If you know you won't get away with doing something, you'll be discouraged from doing it. In this case, what are the cops going to do? How about follow the drone, figure out who it belongs to, then go and have a word with them? Is 'conducting a criminal investigation' government overreach?
- imh 11y ago
  The point is the drone will be gone by the time the police arrive, so there is no drone to follow.
  - swasheck 11y ago
    thanks for clarifying my position.

ams6110 11y ago

Fully agree. Likely the drone is long gone before the police arrive, and if it isn't, what are they going to do about it? Shoot it down is about all they can do, unless someone comes up with some kind of EMP drone disabler.