How To Deal With Confrontations

There you are, minding your own business trying to get your drone images when suddenly, your friendly neighborhood greeter appears. They start to talk with you asking questions about the drone and how much fun it looks. How it must be one of the best jobs in the world as their curiosity takes over the conversation. You’ve already informed them that as soon as you land the drone, you’ll gladly speak with them, and they have been waiting patiently. The encounter is over, and you have both had great conversations, even creating a new friendship or business relationship.

This is how most of our interactions are with the general public. Unfortunately, some of our interactions don’t turn out like this. What sometimes happens is that as they are walking up, you hear their caring, compassionate voice call out: “What the f%#k do you think you’re doing?!?!?!” You start to greet them and let them know that you are doing a job and they cut you off, threaten to call the cops (if they haven’t done so already) or threaten to shoot you or your drone (they definitely haven’t called the cops…yet). You try to deescalate the situation but they are acting like Ed from The Lion King (the original, not the crappy live-action remake) itching for a confrontation.

You’re thinking to yourself “this is not going well” and no matter what you do or say, they keep getting more and more aggravated. You’re trying to land your drone so that you can address this unfortunate situation. You finally pack up everything and take off. This was a lose-lose situation. Luckily, no one got hurt. What can you do to protect yourself?

That is the question that we need to be able to answer. There are things that we can control and things we can’t, and you need to be able to make that determination very quickly while keeping your liability to a minimum. So, what can you do?

Let’s start with the easy things that we can do. Some are free. Some require a minimum investment. I like anything that is $Free.99 so let’s start there.

1.      Announce yourself. When you get to your location, talk to the neighbors before you start. Go knock on their door, introduce yourself, and let them know what you will be doing. A simple “Hi, I’m Bryan from BGA Aerials and I wanted to let you know that your neighbor hired me to get some pictures of his property with my drone. Just wanted to let you know what was going on before I start” goes a long way.  I wouldn’t go down the entire street. I would just keep it to the immediate neighbors (right, left, front and back) along with anyone that poked their head out to see what you are doing. You may even get a new customer out of this interaction.

1.       Record yourself. The moment you start the drone, do a screen recording of the entire flight. Not only will this help in the unfortunate event of a flyaway or crash, but in the event of a confrontation, you can point the drone in the direction of the person that approaches you and capture their image, along with anything else that is in the immediate area. If you have a controller with the integrated screen, use a voice recorder on your phone to capture all audio. If you are using your phone as the controller, make sure that you select “Media & Mic” when you start your screen recording so that the ambient sounds/voices are also captured.

2.      Contact the local authorities. If you know, or suspect, that the area is not the best, contacting the local law enforcement agency ahead of time can be very beneficial. Simply letting them know who you are and where you are can save you a lot of time. No better satisfaction than having the kind, friendly neighbor that was threating you call the police and be told “yes, they called us before they started” and have the wind knocked out of their sails. If it’s a commercial property, notify the manager (owner doesn’t always tell them). If there is security on the property, let them know.

3.      Check your ego. Sometimes we are our own worse enemy. Billy badass (or his sister, Sally) shows up and we let our ego get in the way. They run their mouth. We run our mouth. They run it some more. We run it some more. Next thing you know cops are getting called, fists are flying, or someone pulls out a gun. Everything was recorded on your drone (remember you’re screen recording plus your audio). The last thing you want is to become TikTok famous for all the wrong reasons.

These simple things can save you a headache, plus they are free. Now, let’s look at ones that involve a minimum investment:

1.      Door Hangers. Leaving a door hanger with the same information you would have given above on a neighbor’s door (they weren’t there or refused to answer the door) is a great way to let them know you were there and why you were there. It also gets your information out to them and you may even end up with a new client. I found 2000 custom door hangers for $162. That’s 500 houses. You can make up that $162 without a problem.

2.      Video. Use of a dash camera and a body camera. Why both you say?

a.      The body camera will record everything in front of you. You can find these starting at $100 on Amazon. Keep in mind that get what you pay for in most cases.

b.      The dash camera will record everything around you that you may not see. If you have front and rear cameras on your vehicle, even better. You can also opt for a 360-degree camera on a magnetic mount (or suction cups) on the roof of your vehicle while you are on site. These can vary in price depending on what you get but expect to pay a minimum of $300 for something that is worth it. You can always go used as well. Nothing wrong with Marketplace, eBay, etc. as long as you are careful and do your due diligence. Another added benefit for the dash camera is that it will protect you from any fraudulent insurance claims if/when someone cuts you off and break-checks you and end up in an accident.

3.      Safety Equipment. I know, I know, “I don’t need no stinking safety equipment…” I understand that you may want to be trying to keep it low-key, but sometimes that “low-key” is what attracts attention. If it looks like you are lurking, that may be what attracts the unwanted attention to yourself. If you look like you belong in the area, less attention is actually attracted. Think about it. You see someone on your street in a safety vest doing work. They have traffic cones around their vehicle (or in front or back of it). Do you really think they are up to no good? Yes, the bad guys also use the same tactic to break into homes/scout the area but remember that you already have knocked on the neighbor’s doors/left door hangers. PLUS, if you get your business logo on the back of the vest, even less attention will be paid. Your local neighborhood criminals won’t go with the added expense of a logo. They will just get the plain vest or one that says “FAA Certified Pilot” off Amazon.

There are other personal defense items out there that are available (e.g. Leadicilin and/or Zeus Juice dispensers)  but the regulatory requirements of those will vary state by state and it is best for you to research those extensively.

As more and more drones take to the skies, some people are becoming more educated about them and their capabilities. Genuine curiosity takes over and they want to learn more. There will also be people that don’t know much about them. This is the perfect time to educate them. They may even become an ally.