Public Relations for Drone Pilots has Challenges

Los Angeles, CA—The explosion of civilian multi-rotor camera drones is just beginning.  People are reacting to seeing them for the first time. 

My experiences with the public seeing my drones in action has been mixed.  Thankfully the vast majority of people are amazed and they enjoy seeing them fly.

A minority of “drone detractors” react with exhibitions of hostility, hatred and ignorance.  In the last two years I’ve had just a scant few unsettling encounters while flying my drone.

For reasons I don’t understand I’ve been only been confronted by women.  They advise me I’m breaking the law, and then they call or threaten to call the cops.  They obviously don’t know the law. 

I usually ignore them, shoot my video and leave the area when my flight is over.  If the cops respond to their call I don’t know because I’ve always moved on prior to their arrival. 

Three women on separate occasions were downright nasty and even emotionally disturbed.

I’ve never been negatively confronted by police and have sent my drone into the air in front of them.  The cops seem to be curious and enjoy learning about them.

I have no clue what drove these women’s nastiness and anger.  Taking a friendly approach never helps and responding with similar hostility is pointless and counter-productive.

Moving to another location in one case was little help as one woman jumped in her car and actually followed me! 

It’s obvious these women are clueless of why we send our drones up or that they are safe and not invading their privacy.   I’m really proud of the videos I uploaded to YouTube and simply want the world to see just how much fun I have while capturing the stunning images.

The civilian camera drones are here to stay.  Our First Amendment right to use them to capture images, trumps those hastily passed laws along with attempted future legislation outlawing them.  

The safety record of the civilian multi-rotor drones is unblemished despite the two million already in the hands of civilians.  

I have a habit of sending my drone up in the early morning hours avoiding potential busybodies that might take exception to my drone.  I also position my controller and drone behind my car to shield my activities from strangers. 

We must remain polite, friendly and civil even when people become nasty.  I’d rather make friends than enemies out of anyone.  I will continue to take the high road with anyone hostile to my drones

Why is the Media is Falling For Fake Drone Stories?

Los Angeles, CA—The latest technology tool for newsgathering is taking a propaganda beating from the media.  As incredible as it seems the media is promoting ignorance about camera drones rather than enlightening their audience! 

The little drones are indeed amazing.  They can take sophisticated yet tiny cameras to incredible heights to get inexpensive video and still images in near absolute safety!  

They are definitely a novelty and local police have zero training about these devices.  They have not been around long enough for police and procedures to be developed.  The obvious best policy is to simply leave the drone operators alone. 

Cops seem to want to make arrests for drone use because they know right now they will get substantial news coverage.  However those highly publicized recent arrests of drone pilots have turned out to be absolutely bogus.

Two police helicopter pilots in New York spotted a little plastic drone in the area of the George Washington Bridge.   They chased it and then arranged for the felony arrests of two young men claiming these drone operators endangered the police helicopter!  Their own recorded radio transmissions were solid proof that the cops lied! 

Yesterday a drone pilot was arrested as a Peeping Tom when his drone was “too close” to a medical center where people were believed to be possibly undressing inside.  The fact was that this proved impossible because of reflective material on the glass window.  There certanly were no images of undressed people on the drone's camera!

Since when do people that don’t close their drapes have any reasonable expectation of privacy?

As for the camera drones they have the ultimate “black box” that will show the world in high definition video exactly what it was doing!  We can count on liars being exposed when the images are viewed. 

Many helicopter and fixed wing pilots stand to lose their livelihoods as drone operators replace them.  They have an obvious conflict of interest when it comes to making reports about drone activities.  They want them outlawed for very understandable but ulterior motivation. 

It’s simply about cost and safety.  Even if the little drones crash nobody is going to neither die nor will there be remarkable injuries or property damage.  These traditional pilots can be counted upon to hate multi-rotor drones and their operators.

Propaganda is feeding fear and loathing by the ignorant public.  Nobody stands to gain more from the camera drones that the media and the public that will be able see the world as birds do.  Why is the media falling for the deception of the drone detractors?

Drone journalists are going to be broadcasting and publishing images that were impossible until now.  The camera drones are already bringing us art, beauty, and truth.  There are really no negatives.

People are beginning argue that terrorists will use them for attacks.  They are far less powerful and destructive to aircraft or people than ordinary firearms.  People are letting their over-active imaginations rule over common sense.

The FAA is trying to deal with government concerns that these devices are dangerous.   In the hands of the media that’s true because they may discover waste, mismanagement and questionable behavior of government employees.

Cops are already in a goldfish bowl with millions of cellphone cameras waiting to catch them making missteps.  Now they are being observed from drones too!  Will cops be making arrests of drone operators to intimidate and prevent them from documenting their behavior?  History says that’s a guarantee!

We know from experience that cops have arrested thousands of photographers and cellphone users until the courts ruled that the cops were dead wrong.  Police tyranny may well be a fact of life for many camera drone pilots.  

Cameras are very dangerous instruments because they expose the naked truth.  Camera drones are a new danger that may bring us yet more truth than we can handle.   Human being have shown over and over again that they can’t handle the truth!

Police, Media Relations and Disinformation

Phoenix, AZ—Politicians and their appointed police chiefs across this nation demand nearly total control of police related information.

It’s epidemic in the larger cities controlled by Democratic Party mayors.  They see the value of leaving their citizens with a false sense of security and public safety as they spin any and all information accordingly.

Police business was once considered just that.  Certain information was kept away from all but sworn police officers.  That’s not the case because the local politicians have demanded and unlawfully obtained access to sensitive police data nearly everywhere.

Politicians also demand the ability to influence arrests and prosecutions of friends, relatives and of course their campaign contributors.  Illicit influence is used to both free the guilty and even jail the innocent.  Cops and prosecutors have no choice but to look the other way.  Whistle blowing in law enforcement circles simply does not exist. 

Our cops are considered expendable so reality dictates that the bosses find a sacrificial lamb or two to frame, fire and destroy their reputations.  This creates the appearance of avoiding corruption by eating a few of their own.

If you think things are operating by the book anywhere, you’re dead wrong.  Of course the actual Obstruction of Justice must be subtle and well below media radar. 

Controlling the cops is somewhat easy for politicians because they control the lives of officers through their jobs, working assignments and pensions.

Because of political corruption the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports system is almost totally unreliable because of local politicians and their police chiefs. 

They have learned that they can skew statistics to get additional federal funding or to hide things like murders from the public.  They’ve found creative ways of making crime statistics appear almost anyway they want.  

I’ve been both a cop and an investigative TV news producer over the last four decades and have seen this all-first hand. 

The police agencies have learned that they can control information by the use of Public Information Officers.   These are the kind of people that know how to do exactly what they’re told by superiors. 

PIO’s are not there to disseminate information but to protect and hide it.  They provide not a single syllable beyond what the public record demands.  They do this with a broad smile and appearance of cooperation. 

PIO’s know how to arrange a live news conference on an important crime story.  They love the captive audience that live TV gives them.  The PIO’s dutifully subvert the news conference purpose and instead use it for face time of the local politicians that have absolutely nothing to do with the story. 

Then they all brag about the “great work” they are doing for the taxpayers until the mass nausea sets in.  Only after that they will say a few words about the story involved. 

Today’s local news is troubled in a big way.  Lost audience and revenue has eliminated any challenges to the PIO’s disinformation.  The PIO’s and their bosses love this and know the stories will spin they way they want them.

As an investigative TV news producer I’ve made it personal policy to purposely avoid the PIO’s and not waste my time with them.  

Instead I locate and contact the witnesses, victims and property owners for the real story.  Instead of waiting for the cops to tell me about the backgrounds I investigate the newsmakers myself. 

If news organizations like allowing the PIO’s to tell their audiences what the news is, reporters and producers are not necessary.  Let the PIO’s Skype in their sound! 

No police department, politician or other obstructionist is going to prevent me from digging and learning the truth about a story I’m working.  Getting a news director to authorize my time these days is the real challenge. 

I’ve always watched the lamest of reporters suck up to the PIO’s thinking they will somehow get something extra.  The PIO’s are enemies of the truth and exist only to demolish or derail anything that might show government ineffectiveness or questionable motivation. 

Reporters should simply refuse to deal with the PIO’s.  If the cop or a low level supervisor like a sergeant or detective handling the story you're working has been muzzled that all the more reason to skip wasting time with the PIO’s. 

At a minimum no sound bites, name recognition belongs in print or on video of any police PIO. 

Every journalist that covers crime and courts should know this. 

The truth is that many reporters these days only want to get their minute-thirty second package up or six-inch print story without any effort.  What a sad existence.  I say do it right or don’t do it at all. 

My Suggestion for the New Leadership of FOP Lodge 7

Chicago, IL—FOP Lodge 7 has failed miserably in the past to properly represent the men and women of the Chicago police Department.  The leadership of the FOP has been bedding down with city politicians and a couple of really lame appointed police superintendents. We can only guess what the tradeoffs have been.

The department is rapidly shrinking and the position of police officer grows more dangerous by the hour.  Pension funds have been mismanaged, stolen or otherwise compromised.  Officer’s retirement funding is in grave danger as bankruptcy looms.

The only real source for news about the matters that affect police officers come from bloggers.  The Second City Cop Blog is the primary source of news cops need to know.  The downside is that the some of the blog content creator/s are anonymous.  Publishing the truth about mismanagement, waste and corruption is hazardous to any working officer. 

The FOP should take on a role of reporting news to its membership along with the local taxpayers in a very public way.  The FOP should bring transparency to issues such as hiring, promotions and discipline matters that are based almost solely on political clout.

That means hiring a full time investigative multi-media journalist along with a producer/video photographer.  FOP needs to cover all events that involve officer’s lives, safety and careers. There should be no less than five news multimedia stories produced per week.

The FOP reporter needs to call out malicious or deceptive mainstream media reports about police officers.   The reporter can lawfully expose the criminal history of accusers using available public court records.  The reporter can also find and interview anyone with information that will expose the truth.

I’d create a special FOP News website and call it, “Nightly Windy City Police Reports.”  It would contain text, pictures and hard-hitting video reports.

The bloggers need to continue and call out the FOP if they fail to do their jobs.  The FOP can have all the power of a major newspaper or TV news organization.  The two media positions are not one for amateurs or beginners.   

I’d hire former WMAQ reporter Amy Jacobson who’s always been very fair and well liked by cops.  I’d let her pick the producer/photographer.   I’d take the producer spot myself if it was offered.  In any event there are plenty of great investigative reporters that can fill this position.

The FOP needs a bare knuckles reporter that understands public records laws and information sources.  That reporter should be trustworthy in order to protect department and any city employee whistle blowers.  

The names of the whistle blowers should be given to FOP administration only on a need to know basis.  Actually they don’t have a need to know.

It’s time to bring serious sunshine on the Chicago Police Board. They have inequitably and shamelessly saved or destroyed careers based on clout rather than evidence.  The FOP needs to examine its contract power to force reforms on the Police Board. 

The men and women of the Chicago Police Department deserve something other than lip service from the union that claims to represent them.   

Chicago Politicians Must Face Violence Crisis, Here’s a Solution

Chicago, IL—The Windy City has been off to a violent start of summer. They have a major shortage of officers to deal with crime.


There is a simple solution to deal with this urban nightmare. Ignoring this problem will have dire consequences affecting rental property, businesses and the quality of life for years to come. Chicago’s lost enough taxpayers to safer and less hostile communities.


There are several thousand honorably retired Chicago cops around. Loads of them are fit, trained and still have their uniforms and equipment.


They can be brought back to cover weekends and evening hours. These officers can be assigned, to less strenuous beats while the younger officers are sent to do the heavy lifting.


The retirees should not be forced to reside within the city because many of them moved upon retirement to the suburbs. This will not exceed the overtime rates of regular officers.

Want to Commit a Burglary, Rob a Bank or Kill Someone in Chicago?

Chicago, IL—NATO week will tie up cops and keep nearly all of them near McCormick Place.  Normally quiet neighborhoods on the Northwest and Southwest will be far more under-policed than normal. 

I can’t imagine that the most dangerous criminals in the Midwest are not thinking the same thing right now.   NATO is creating the Perfect Storm for crime in the Windy City.

Will we see daytime Flash Mobs at Chicago’s shopping malls looting the Apple Stores and such? 

Perhaps it would be a great time to play hooky from work and stay home with a gun handy. 

Who will be watching the cop’s homes while they are forced to deal with the anti-NATO and Occupy swine?  Who will be responding to burglary and hold up alarms? 

Chicago Cops Arresting Reporters, Not a Good Idea

Chicago, IL—As far back as I can remember Chicago cops and local news reporters had conflicts. Cops relate to local media the same way they do the ACLU. Cops hate both until they need them. That in many cases is a dead wrong approach. Reporters seem to think cops are a bunch of poorly educated, heartless Neanderthals that hate everyone. They are also dead wrong.

There is a culture clash between professional journalists and cops. The vast majority of reporters come complete with the liberal brainwashing from their prestigious journalism schools. Nearly all of them support Left Wing politicians and that failed Socialist mentality. They seem to side with Chicago’s leftist politicians on every count. There are few exceptions.

Chicago’s finest on the other hand have learned the folly of Socialism deep in the city’s trenches. Cops see first hand the damage done by Socialists to human beings that are groomed to be ignorant dependents of a welfare state for life. The irreparable damage robs people of self-respect, morale and simple human kindness. Chicago’s poor live in a Socialist state that is nothing less than a serious form of democide and genocide.

Reporters don’t get the education cops get in the streets night after bloody night. Reporters never get to know the horror children are subjected to in the ghettos that turn them into hateful and violent drug addicted adults.

Reporter’s educations are a case of the blind led and taught by the blind. They don’t understand the abject failure of Socialism or Communism as a system of government. In a sterile classroom the Socialist theory seems like a good idea. The reality of Socialism is slavery, degradation and corruption on a grand scale.

Reporters are surprised to learn that a good percentage of cops have solid educations and at one time I remember when over 500 cops were also members in good standing with the Illinois State Bar.

Last week some TV news people found themselves in handcuffs when they got sideways with some cops. It was an ugly scene and a regrettable affair that got some national attention.

I’ve worked both sides of this fence and learned a lot over the past four decades about this cop/reporter culture clash.

Reporters are supposed to get their cop information anywhere they can. The department wants only one authorized information source; the Public Information Office for them to get it and it’s definitely not some street cop.

Street cops on the other hand never want to give reporters anything out of pure spite and department regulations. It’s in the best interest of every working cop to change this misunderstanding. Cops and reporters can work together for a better world.

The fact is cops and reporters should be a little smarter. If street cops will provide the information they can’t get from the department propaganda office they won’t be afraid lose the city administration’s affection. Reporters depend on the department for favoritism and it’s far better they rely on the street cop than some official disinformation officer.

Cops want and need reporters to tell the truth of what’s going on in the trenches. They need to expose how gun control laws do the exact opposite of what they were intended, the deadliness of manpower shortages and training deficiencies. The only way that works is when you make friends instead of foes.

Reporters and cops can do a lot for each other that will aid good public policy. They are far better off working together than separate.

The City of Chicago Declared War on Cop Bloggers!

Chicago, IL—Over the last seven years blogging has become popular with many Americans including Windy City cops. Blogs have broken news that media organizations simply wont report.

Having spent the last 24 years as a freelance TV news producer I learned the primary reason that important stories go untold and published. Journalists all think they need cooperation from politicians, bureaucrats and government in order to report news. In fact journalists beg for exclusive tips on government activities like police crackdowns, raids and important crime stories. The payoff for the tips comes in important exposure and glad-handing for certain self-serving accomplishments real or imagined. That, along with killing any unflattering stories.

Reporters can’t seem to develop independent information sources and wrongly think without government official’s help they would be unable to report on government at all. Very few reporters have the courage to become persona non-gratia with any government agency. The unwritten rule is to never make the government Gods angry. If you make them angry you must be able to destroy them or they will punish you for eternity.

Bloggers have little to lose especially ones run by anonymous writers. They can say nearly anything they like without interference or repercussions. Mainstream media types can only dream about having such freedom to report whatever they chose.

Chicago’s politicians and bureaucrats have suffered many embarrassments at the hands of cop bloggers. A WBBM-TV reporter caught the public cowardice of former Superintendent Jody Weis on tape by accident. The cop bloggers and others commenting on these sites were unmerciful and unforgiving as they exploited this story.

Second City Cop had already named Weis, J-Fed because of his past employment with the FBI. After the incident he was quickly renamed J-Fled for his lack of valor. How embarrassing is that? The real problem was that SCC get’s well over 10,000 hits per day but that includes nearly every cop, crime reporter and the others involved in any form of public safety.

Detective Shaved Longcock is another wildly popular cop blogger here that has been absolutely fearless in his open discussions of the out-of-control Black on White crime. He like SCC has ridiculed department brass for their ineffectiveness and incompetence.

The identities of these two bloggers have not been publically established and if they were unmasked they would quickly be made to disappear by their victims.

Personally I share the disdain for the criminal mob running Chicago’s government. I’ve long ago parted ways with the Chicago Police Department and am totally free to blog under may own identity. Any current department members would be crazy to reveal themselves. They would be framed, fired and destroyed at a minimum.

The Chicago Police Department just promulgated a new General Order to its membership regarding blogging or posting on Social Media. It effectively outlaws posting anything not officially approved by the department. The penalty for disobedience is termination from employment. I guess the First Amendment has passed away in my hometown.

This action against the bloggers is the greatest compliment because had they been insignificant and ineffective they’d not have been outlawed.

I’d like to hope that the First Amendment would prevail and the slime running the city would behave themselves a little better. They have targeted the bloggers for total elimination with the new anti-blogging edict.

I’m here to say if my cop blogging colleagues somehow vanish, there will be many more to take their place. Chicago cops know that I will be happy to expose waste, fraud or mismanagement by any Chicago official. They also know that I will relentlessly attack the monster until it’s dead.

Department members have spouses and children that use the Social Media too. The department can’t also claim any jurisdiction over those close to cops that dare to blog.

Update: SCC has hit a speed bump and has gone dark for 24 hours, but that turned out to be a personal issue and not an end to the flow of information. Welcome Back SCC!

The General Order is Below:

The City of Chicago Declared War on Cop Bloggers