Reporting a serious UK Drone Rule breach

Legal & Privacy
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I saw an obviously really serious breach of drone rules (flying a drone at low level for several minutes over a densely packed crowd/demonstration in a London street). Although I think the rules are generally excessive, this was one of those drone flights that really brings sane pilots into disrepute. At first I assumed that the operator might be the police, collecting images for intelligence purposes/facial recognition.
However, later, I came across the footage on social media - apparently posted by the operator (!) who was clearly not operating with any exemption based on what they said in the post.

After some careful thinking about whether or not to be a ā€œstool pigeonā€, I decided to report the dangerous operation to the CAA and the local police (Met Police). (I was uncertain if the CAA would be interested.)

The CAA replied after 5 weeks: ā€œThe CAAā€™s remit is limited to investigating whether operators have operated in accordance with their Operational Authorisations. Any matters relating to privacy, harassment and, in this case, criminal behaviour should be reported to the Police.ā€

I have so far received no response from the Met Police. After 8 weeks of no response, I asked for a progress report. 4 weeks later no reply.

Really weird! Thoughts? Was it the police after all?

2

The police donā€™t even have the resources to attend reports of burglary :pensive:

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Iā€™d be very surprised if you ever get a response from the police, and wouldnā€™t have bothered reporting the incident to them. I would probably have reported it to the CAA, though, which you did and got a response, which is to refer it to the police if you think a criminal act has taken place.

Youā€™ve done your civic duty as a citizen and as a drone pilot, and have at least been acknowledged by the CAA in the form of a response, inadequate and insulting though it was; for your pains youā€™ve basically been fobbed off by the CAA and ignored by the 5-0. Beyond maybe involving your MP, which sounds a bit Ken & Karen, I donā€™t think you can do very much more. If you are incensed enough, it might be worth taking it up on whatever social media the miscreant has posted the footage on, but again, this might well turn out to be a hiding to nothingā€¦

You might have got more of a response if you had accompanied your report with phone (or drone) footage or photos (the police will want hard evidence that will stand up in court, from you, not from looking online themselves), but clear and concise information of this sort is hard to obtain even by professionals with professional equipment set up in a professional way for a controlled shot; look at the blurred nonsense currently purporting to prove that New Jersey is being swarmed by imaginary drones the size of saloon cars!

You can console yourself that did the right thing to the best of your ability, the failings are with the CAA and the 5-0, not you! Improving the public image of drones and drone pilots willl be a long uphill struggle, and pilots like this donā€™t help, but if we all keep at it (by which I mean flying responsibly and safely) the message will get across eventually. One drone at a timeā€¦

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ā€¦ following brutal assault with a baseball bat when I have the video footage evidence. The victim was in hospital for 3 weeks ā€¦ so nothing minor.

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The Police need a witness to who was flying the drone.
Did you witness who was flying? No.
If you had, would you make a statement to that effect and be a witness? I suspect No.
Do the police have another witness? Again I suspect no.
So why should they spend time investigating something that has no end result?
P

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@Windswept can vouch that they do without any of the above.

They will investigate on social media posts if they believe (rightly or wrongly) that an offence has occurred.

@rayand what offence do you believe was being committed

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You will find and you can FOI any Police Force with a Drone Unit, that they also have to stick to the rules of not flying directly over assemblies. They are not given any ā€™ special powers ā€™ and have to abide by the code as any other drone pilot does.

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milkmanchris: It was not me that believed an offence had taken place.

However, going on pure hearsay from the OPā€™s post, overflying a crowd.

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I asked the question of the OP @rayand , however the term crowd is a very subjective grey area

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You may think term crowd is a very subjective grey area. But it is not at all. It is a group of people - no matter how small or large a group, who could not escape from where they are in the event of danger.
P.

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Subjective in that even in a city centre it might not a crowd.

Some of the ā€˜demonstrationā€™ audit videos I have watched would not constitute a crowd

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Just to stick my two-bobā€™s worth in - I think the reason that the police almost never investigate any possible drone offence is because they are still in the dark about the many various laws and regulations covering drones. Theyā€™re probably not aware of the different categories of drone and things like A2CoC, or GVC, or Article 16, all of which change the rules in certain circumstances. All they know is that itā€™s a minefield where we, the drone operators, have a map through it, and they donā€™t. Always remember, the Polis are looking for an EASY conviction. Anything that will make them work hard with the possibility/probability of no conviction is going to make them either not respond to a drone complaint, or not inestigate.

In my own case, things were slightly different. The original complaint that led to 2 polis arriving at my door and ended up with both of them looking rather foolish, began with a short confrontation I had at Loch Doon with one of the Rangers. He approached me in a bullish manner and so I was not the nice Windswept Robert that I usually am, and instead, let him know he could kick rocks.

Now, the reason that the polis actually attempted an investigation into this one, is because that particular Ranger is the ex-Sgt at the local polis station where his pal is the current Sgt. I expect the conversation went something like this:

Ranger: Derek, thereā€™s an auld arse flyinā€™ a drone up at the Loch. I telt him to stop, but he asked me for ma drivinā€™ license!! He wouldna give me his details and telt me to piss off. I seen him wi that drone skytin aboot near the osprey nest. He made me look a right prick on a YouTube video as well. Can you send a couple o the thugs oot and have a word wi him? I got his car registration so you can run it through the system and find oot who he is. Teach him a lesson about messin wi us Bellsbank Boys, eh?

Sgt Polis: Aye, nae bother, Colin. Iā€™ll get PC Craig Daaayvid and the newbie heā€™s traininā€™ to go roond and scare the shit oot o him.

I expect the Sgt told PC Craig David to take the noob and show her how to put the fear into a local. It was obvious from the demeanour of PC Craig David when he was at my door, that he did not want to be there and was only there because he had been instructed by the Sgt. During his ā€˜interrogationā€™, he was very quick to offer me the name of this Sgt.

Anyway, apologies for the rambling post, but I thought it might be of interest. If youā€™d like to watch the series of videos I made about this whole incident, Start with the Ranger Tries To Stop Me Flying My Drone At Loch Doon, and then the subsequent polis visit videos I made. I have also created and posted a follow up video explaining the result of this whole clusterbourach.

Aye,

Windswept Robert

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Cheers @Windswept

Good to see youā€™re still ok after the ordeal :wink:

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@rayand

Post a link to the footage?

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The size of the crowd size is not a factor.
The deciding factor if there has been a crime is if that crown has room to escape.
I have no idea what your point is. But I will leave you with it.

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Without the evidence there is no point

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I think most of us know a crowd is reasonably defined as ā€˜a gathering of people where in the event a drone fell out of the sky, the unfortunate individual below it could not get out of the way in time to avoid it landing on him/her due to close proximity of others preventing movementā€™ - I find that a useful definition along the ā€˜Donā€™t be a dickā€™ rulešŸ˜

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There was a ( obviously) new drone flier posted a video on a local FB group of a flight taken at a local football grounds summer festival ( featuring a few local bands) He took off opposite the ground, but then flew over crowds of people to get a shot of one of the bands on stage. Quite a few folk pointed out that heā€™d broken CAA rules on flying over crowds. A few days later, the video had been edited ( shortened by at least 10 minutes) to cut out the flying over the crowd part. He was asked if he had an operators licence. His reply ā€œ Whatā€™s one of those ?ā€ :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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I remember that video Robert . Guid yin. :wink::wink:

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Definitely donā€™t start with the video one before thatā€¦ :wink: :rofl: