I have!
Even the overfly legislation bit? Really? Come on, you’re amongst friends. Admit you skipped it 
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Thanks for the considered thoughts and informative post
Have any of us read the whole thing or did we all skip a bit …?
Oh God, not me. I even skip my own contribution
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Ha, I’ve read every comment! Though maybe it’s because I’m new to this site … or maybe it’s because I want all the ammunition possible to fend off busy-bodies when I eventually get back flying. 
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Might have!
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Speaking as a serving copper, you’d never get a Section 5 out of flying a drone in a million years, unless you were consciously flying it at someone and trying to hit them. Which is a very expensive way of committing assault - why not just smack 'em in the chops? 
The actual wording is…
5Harassment, alarm or distress.
(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he—
(a)uses threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
(b)displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening or abusive,
within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.
If any copper says flying your drone normally is committing a section 5, I’d suggest you ask them what the case law is on that, given that the public order act was written in 1986 and amended by the Crime and Disorder Act 2013, long before consumer drones were a thing. Then stand politely by and enjoy their discomfort.
If this sounds odd coming from a copper, well, jobsworths make life difficult for the rest of us.
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^^^^^ This is why I love this site 
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Believe me, as someone who works in a control room environment in the police, public order offences are basically of no interest whatsoever unless they descend into assaults. Most have calmed down and resolved themselves LONG before we have someone free to send, and there’s usually a never-ending procession of missing kids, domestic assaults, scabby drug-addicted shoplifters and road accidents to see first. Using the magic words Harassment Alarm and Distress will most likely get you a phone call back 1/2 hour later to ask has the idiot gone, and then a crime number over the phone unless it was someone you know or there’s realistic lines of enquiry.
For the same reasons, unless it was over a prison or over a motorway or similar, I’d never resource a complaint about a drone flight, due to battery life they’d most likely be long gone before we got there.
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Interesting insights - thanks for sharing 
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Not at all and thank you for your cander.
My experience with NYP is the opposite, granted not with drone flying but we have been told by the super there to get a response, especialy on a 101 call to mention alarm harassed distressed (it seems to work too)
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You’re most welcome. I can only guess that NYP aren’t as busy as my force (big town, AVFC, nudge nudge wink wink). If it’s any consolation, if it works, it means your chance of getting shot.stabbed, burgled or robbed as much less…
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So, does this mean the idiot who was swearing and shouting abuse at me over his garden fence for flying my mini in a local park was guilty of a section 5 offence?
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@Borg42 depends if you kept the recording of his wife
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I got that badge after reading this thread too 
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I didn’t 
try reading it again, maybe you skipped a line somewhere 
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I agree, most of us have heard about the idiots who experience “flyaways” due to pilot error. Not everyone is as sensible as grey arrows members
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