TV Photographer Who Used Drone Suing Police For Calling His Employer and Recommending He Be DIsciplined

A TV photographer in Hartford,
Connecticut, is suing police after they stopped and questioned him
for using a drone to capture images of the scene of an accident,
and then allegedly contacted his employer recommending the TV
station discipline the photographer. Pedro Rivera, who was not
working for the TV station when he used his drone, was briefly
suspended and is now suing police for lost wage and the violation
of his right to free speech and his right to be free from
unreasonable search and seizure,
according to Poynter. In their incident report, a police
officer claims he was worried about the “privacy of the victim’s
body,” but Rivera points out photographers on the scene had
equipment that caught far more detailed photos of the scene than
his remote-controlled aircraft could.

Rivera is not in trouble with the FAA primarily because he
wasn’t working for the TV station at the time. Had he deployed his
drone in the course of working for a media outlet, he would have
run afoul  of FAA
regulations, which permit limited individual use of drones, but
prohibit the use of drones for “commercial activity,” which for the
FAA includes journalism, until regulations are in place in 2015.
It’s disheartening but not surprising that the feds draw a
distinction between individuals and groups of individuals, and deny
to the latter group rights that belong to both simply because of a
misguided bias against “commercial” activities.