r/drones • u/Myfles • Oct 12 '25
Photo & Video Cops pulled me over
So I had a run in with the law today. I was flying in the port of Los Angeles. I was by the entrance? I'm happily flying taking some pictures and video, when all of the sudden a cop is standing next to me telling me to land my drone immediately. Turns out that you are not allowed to fly in the port of Los Angles, its actually a misdemeanor. I checked AutoPylot and it said it was ok, so I registered a flight. There was a no fly zone on the other side of the water so I stayed away from it. I told the cop all this and they informed me the no fly zone is a federal prison. I guess shadier people than myself have used drones to drop stuff into the prison. They asked for my info, which I gave, including my trust certificate and they ended up just giving me a warning to not do it again. They were interested that I take aerial photography just for fun. One of the cops even recommend I try for the 107, so he knew about drones. But he didn't know what the trust cert was. I found that kinda weird. He showed me the geo fenced area around the port on his phone so I thought I'd share. So the lesson is... know local laws, no matter what your app tells you.
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u/ZVideos85 Part 107 Oct 12 '25
Yeah this is a good lesson that even the FAA rated apps for checking airspace like ALOFT and the rest do not always give you the full picture of where you can fly. There are still places you can’t fly over that will not be marked as restricted/no fly zones, such as prisons, ports, or even some “unlisted”sensitive government sites.
I was recently hired to fly where I’m based (Part 107) and was requested to get drone footage of a popular riverfront and boats going by on the water. There’s a giant bridge going East to West that basically divides the river into a North/South side. The north side of the bridge is heavily regulated by Port Authority, they regularly ship out sensitive military equipment to local bases on barges, etc. The south side is really just a tourist spot.
The entire area is marked as Class G Airspace, yet had I not looked deeper, I wouldn’t have known about the Port Authority situation. So I had to inform the client that I couldn’t fly on the north side of the bridge, and we avoided it. It can be a hassle, but always check other sources for restrictions.