Here is a response from a member of one of our forums. He is a retired LEO so I think he has a objective viewpoint...
"As a retired detective with over 30 years experience I made these observations:
Clearly Marshall Farms security called the police because they saw a drone observing their property. (Perfectly legal but they didn't like it).
The police have done this for Marshall Farms before.
The state trooper only wanted to identify the occupants of the van. The occupants committed no crimes and the trooper did not have probable cause to arrest anybody. He could argue that he had reasonable suspicion that the drone flight was suspicious given the current state of terrorist activity nowadays. But it was obvious to me he knew the drone was observing Marshall Farms, not planning a terrorist act.
Given those facts, the officer can ask for ID. If the people refuse, he can legally do nothing. He can detain for a reasonable length of time to determine if a crime had been committed. (In Arizona, that time has been determined to be 20 minutes buy the Supreme Court).
If he can't determine a crime was committed he must release the people. They were stopped for suspicious activity, not a traffic violation, therefore the driver is not required to produce a drivers license.
Clearly, these people were arrested for "contempt of cop". Meaning the officer arrested them only because they didn't comply with his illegal demands.
This is the most blatant and unprofessional case of police misconduct and false arrest I have ever seen. To do this while being recorded defies any sensibility. I gave up counting how many times the trooper lied when claiming the people would be committing a crime if they did not identify themselves.
They did nothing wrong and that us why they were released without being charged with anything.
Personally, I see this as a textbook case of false arrest (civil) and violation of civil rights (a federal crime)." - Maddog
Just my 2 cents:
As a retired cop (32 years) and chief of police twice; I concur with my peer's assessment above. Some police officers are ignorant of the limits of their authority, but out on the streets is the wrong battleground to test that theory. (Don't know NY law but in Arizona if you are operating a vehicle you must provide your driver license to a police officer.) I thought this was a drone issue but it sounds like these guys were some sort of animal rights activists. I wouldn't care for their combative attitude if I were the cops. A 15 minute stop took over an hour because they acted like dicks.
And they should sue the state and the county for false arrest (which I think was their ultimate goal).
Having said that, as a Criminal Justice professor, I advice my students (this question comes up a lot) to always cooperate with the cops and file a complaint later. Pushing the cops into an arrest (even if illegal) is not fun and you may get hurt. Even as a retired cop I don't challenge, and never would, a cop's authority because I'm too old to spend a night in jail. It's more fun to drag the cop through an internal investigation and embarrassing the agency by going to the media.
I am a commercial drone operator and follow the rules. When I interact with cops I am polite and respectful (they put up with enough crap every day and I don't need to add to it). My advice to my fellow commercial drone operators is to be polite and respectful when the fuzz shows up, show them your paperwork) and they will leave you alone so you can get back to work. I carry a red folder with tabulated color copies of:
Driver's license (because any cop worth of the title is going to run a wants & warrants check on you)
FAA license
FAA registration for each drone
Certificate of insurance
Business license for the particular city or town
Written authorization from the property owner
The folder gives the cop something to read while I bring the drone back and land it. And demonstrates I am a professional UAV/UAS operator, not some dips--t with a drone.
Or I could act like a **** and cry about my rights in the back seat of the squad car on the way to the station. Common sense. Cops have a saying "you can beat the charge but you can't beat the ride" or if you like this one better, " you got nothing on me! I got handcuffs on you!"
