5 ms·

Friend of mine runs a drone photography business (think instagram people on vacation or house photography for real estate). The city requires he hire an off dut

Friend of mine runs a drone photography business (think instagram people on vacation or house photography for real estate). The city requires he hire an off duty cop for $100/hr to “manage the set” and the minimum time per engagement for this rent-a-racketeer service is four hours. The shoots are usually about 30 minutes.

stevehawk 3y ago
(roughly) where is that at?
- BWStearns 3y ago
  Florida of course.
webninja 3y ago
Sounds like something a gang would require.
FireBeyond 3y ago
That sounds so far from the realm of being in anyway necessary, and not just outright racketeering that you/your friend should contact local media, the DOJ or both.
- BWStearns 3y ago
  That’s a good way to get your business license paperwork lost. Edit: not sure why the downvotes here. If you’re a small business owner you are trying to get through your day and your day gets a lot longer if you piss off casually corrupt city officials who can shut your business down by slow walking needed paperwork. This is a group that happily added 200% to your operating costs via ransoming your business license for a thinly disguised bribe. You think they won’t retaliate if you put them on the spot publicly?
  - gamblor956 3y ago
    I think that if what you were describing was true, a federal DOJ investigation would result in a lot of people spending time in federal prison, and your friend walking away with enough money that your friend can drone all he wants from a private beach in the Bahamas while you both sip mai tais. So yes, they can retaliate against your friend. And your friend can retaliate against them and the difference is that their retaliation will cost your friend a few hours and a few hundred bucks, but your friend's retaliation will put them behind bars and destroy their careers and probably imperil their pensions. So if your story is true, contact the DOJ.
    - techdmn 3y ago
      The DOJ being notificed could result in a lot of people spending time in prison. It could also result in no action. Retaliation by local officials could be limited to a few hours and a few hundred dollars of lost income. It could also be a lot worse. Based on my personal experience I certainly wouldn't bet a few hundred dollars on the former in either case.
    - s1artibartfast 3y ago
      Why? If the law is on the books I don't see anyone doing time
    - BWStearns 3y ago
      While I normatively agree with you that that’s the way it should work, that isn’t how these things go. This kind of pseudo corruption is extremely common because it’s easy to make shitty arguments that pass first inspection (oh we need the police there for public safety, think of the children, oh a bird! look over there!). They drag it out into a years long appeals process where they grind the plaintiff down and eventually they settle for no wrongdoing and attorneys fees and change, and now you get your business license back and have a hostile local PD.
      - pseg134 3y ago
        Tell us the city or you are just talking nonsense on the internet. I can describe a 1000 plausible but untrue scenarios.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Or it's because too many drone pilots were more than obnoxious. I'm a drone pilot myself and there's no way some of the shots on r/drones are even remotely close to being legal.
  - BWStearns 3y ago
    So that’s regulated by the FAA and I applaud enforcement efforts on that front. A local PD scalping overtime isn’t going to know a class bravo from his asshole so I don’t see the connection. Local PDs don’t have the knowledge or jurisdiction for this stuff.
  - phatskat 3y ago
    I don’t think they’re requiring officers to be hired to make sure the operator isn’t breaking the law.
    - mschuster91 3y ago
      Not drone law specifically, yes, but to serve as a contact point for "concerned" neighbors. Yes, it's nuts, but IMHO it's a knee-jerk response to an increased number of complaints.
tcbawo 3y ago
This ordinance sounds like it was created to discourage people from flying drones and photographing residents without their permission. If I had to guess, some hobbyists probably tried to claim what they were doing was business-related. So, the city decided to set a high bar.
- BWStearns 3y ago
  Hobbyist flying is not covered under these rules. You can still fly non commercial under the applicable FAA rules as anywhere else. This is just a petty local shakedown. They could come and yell at you I guess but there're no laws that would back that yelling up. The only stick here is the business license.
- tiahura 3y ago
  Exactly this. Sounds like a decent way to discourage frivolous drone photography.

stevehawk 3y ago

(roughly) where is that at?

BWStearns 3y ago
Florida of course.

webninja 3y ago

Sounds like something a gang would require.

FireBeyond 3y ago

That sounds so far from the realm of being in anyway necessary, and not just outright racketeering that you/your friend should contact local media, the DOJ or both.

BWStearns 3y ago
That’s a good way to get your business license paperwork lost. Edit: not sure why the downvotes here. If you’re a small business owner you are trying to get through your day and your day gets a lot longer if you piss off casually corrupt city officials who can shut your business down by slow walking needed paperwork. This is a group that happily added 200% to your operating costs via ransoming your business license for a thinly disguised bribe. You think they won’t retaliate if you put them on the spot publicly?
- gamblor956 3y ago
  I think that if what you were describing was true, a federal DOJ investigation would result in a lot of people spending time in federal prison, and your friend walking away with enough money that your friend can drone all he wants from a private beach in the Bahamas while you both sip mai tais. So yes, they can retaliate against your friend. And your friend can retaliate against them and the difference is that their retaliation will cost your friend a few hours and a few hundred bucks, but your friend's retaliation will put them behind bars and destroy their careers and probably imperil their pensions. So if your story is true, contact the DOJ.
  - techdmn 3y ago
    The DOJ being notificed could result in a lot of people spending time in prison. It could also result in no action. Retaliation by local officials could be limited to a few hours and a few hundred dollars of lost income. It could also be a lot worse. Based on my personal experience I certainly wouldn't bet a few hundred dollars on the former in either case.
  - s1artibartfast 3y ago
    Why? If the law is on the books I don't see anyone doing time
  - BWStearns 3y ago
    While I normatively agree with you that that’s the way it should work, that isn’t how these things go. This kind of pseudo corruption is extremely common because it’s easy to make shitty arguments that pass first inspection (oh we need the police there for public safety, think of the children, oh a bird! look over there!). They drag it out into a years long appeals process where they grind the plaintiff down and eventually they settle for no wrongdoing and attorneys fees and change, and now you get your business license back and have a hostile local PD.
    - pseg134 3y ago
      Tell us the city or you are just talking nonsense on the internet. I can describe a 1000 plausible but untrue scenarios.
mschuster91 3y ago
Or it's because too many drone pilots were more than obnoxious. I'm a drone pilot myself and there's no way some of the shots on r/drones are even remotely close to being legal.
- BWStearns 3y ago
  So that’s regulated by the FAA and I applaud enforcement efforts on that front. A local PD scalping overtime isn’t going to know a class bravo from his asshole so I don’t see the connection. Local PDs don’t have the knowledge or jurisdiction for this stuff.
- phatskat 3y ago
  I don’t think they’re requiring officers to be hired to make sure the operator isn’t breaking the law.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    Not drone law specifically, yes, but to serve as a contact point for "concerned" neighbors. Yes, it's nuts, but IMHO it's a knee-jerk response to an increased number of complaints.

tcbawo 3y ago

This ordinance sounds like it was created to discourage people from flying drones and photographing residents without their permission. If I had to guess, some hobbyists probably tried to claim what they were doing was business-related. So, the city decided to set a high bar.

BWStearns 3y ago
Hobbyist flying is not covered under these rules. You can still fly non commercial under the applicable FAA rules as anywhere else. This is just a petty local shakedown. They could come and yell at you I guess but there're no laws that would back that yelling up. The only stick here is the business license.
tiahura 3y ago
Exactly this. Sounds like a decent way to discourage frivolous drone photography.