Kensington Metro Park Police In Michigan Try To Thwart Flight

A quadcopter pilot who wanted to take some video of his friend riding a bicycle in Kensington Metropark west of Detroit, MI, found himself face to face with law enforcement officers ... and held his ground.

The quadcopter pilot was Jonathan Hair. He was getting set to fly his model aircraft when he was approached by two officers who told him it was not allowed. The officers said the park would be liable if someone were injured by the aircraft.

The problem (for the officers) was that neither of them or a supervisor who came later could cite any specific regulation or rule that prohibited the activity.

According to the blog Photography Is Not A Crime, they tried ... telling Hair that his RC aircraft could be confiscated, asking for ID, asking where he had parked his car, they even asked if he had paid to get into the park ... but through the entire encounter, Hair remained calm and polite, and refused to be intimidated.

One officer even told Hair "you can't control that all the time" referring to the aircraft. "You can't tell me that you do."

At one point the supervisor told Hair that the leash laws written for dogs applied to remote-controlled aircraft.

Still, the bottom line was he was not allowed to fly the aircraft in the park. While that was not a clearly-established rule, the supervising officer assured Hair that it would be very soon.

Hair let the video camera run during the entire encounter, and posted it on YouTube. Judge for yourself.

FMI: YouTube Video