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 e...

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 t hose highly publicized recent arrests of drone pilots have turned out to be absolutely bogus. Two police helicopter pilots in New York spotted a lit...

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 ...

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 reporti...

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.

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, 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...

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 gove...