Howard Beach 3/2

Ok since nobody else has posted, I thought I'd mention this since we hear a fair share of bad encounters. The gang had been gathered at HoBe for a few hours when an unmarked car pulls up and rolls down his window. The officer asks if anything special is coming over, to which we responded "no, we're just out enjoying the departures." He nods his head and seemingly drives away only to park his rmp a few slots down in the lot. Now, as he's exiting his vehicle I'm thinking, here we go. The Lieutenant walks up, and after pulling on his coat, introduces himself and shakes all of our hands. He spent the next 20 minutes or so talking about spotting with his son, and how he checks out the spotter blotter here to hear about the not so good encounters. Anywhoo, this Lieutenant (withholding names due to potential b.s. in Puzzle Palace) was absolute aces, and I thought I'd give him a nod. Stay safe Lieut, hope to see you out sometime with a camera.

You know, I was just thinking, "I should post about that awesome cop who stopped by HoBe". It's great to have people in the NYPD who understand what we do and that we're a deterrent to "problems" rather than a threat...

Sounds like a great guy. Always nice to hear a "win" every now and then with the cops. :)

Great to hear. Hello to him if he's reading.

It's just an awareness issue when we have the occasional problems. Once people really learn about the hobby, you start to see that people can really enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing!

We need a new movie - "The Good Lieutenant" :D

Thanks for posting....

Tom

>We need a new movie - "The Good Lieutenant" :D <

Cool that he is a "boss" and not just a patrolman. Maybe he can tell the regular patrol officers
to cut you some slack.

Actually looking foward to meeting him. :borat:

Good to see that local LEO's are gettring much more aclimated to us in the public eye. Thsnks Leut!

On 3/29 we were visited by 2 officers from the park police I believe it was. the officer that came tyo our car was friendly, asked a couple of the usual questions, and then asked to see a few frames on the camera. I'm assuming to see if I was takingt anything of the trainsit tracks or bridges. I for one try to not take any images of these things because they could set off alarms. I welcome visits like this one and they were very friendly.

OK, I posting to an old thread, but....
When we were having our 'Police troubles' at PHL, I got in contact with a Lieutenant who was likewise very understanding and always straightened things out for us. So it's those Lt's that seem to be the 'goto' PD folk.

Same thing for DCA. Back in 2002 cops at DCA would give all spotters hard time taking pictures from inside the terminals and from terminal balconies. I was kicked out few times by nasty cops.
One sunny day I was taking pictures of arrivals on runway 15 from the runners path. Got a lot of attention that day. Six police cars pulled right next to me (and my wife), all cops had hands on their guns. I was very uncomfortable in this situation. Seventh car pulled over and MWAA Lieutenant approached me. He checked my ID and told me that if I'm at this spot next time I should call Ops to let them know about my presence. Also he told me that if any of his cops will ever give me hard time I should contact him directly.
Since then I never had any problems at DCA. There are some good Lieutenants in this world :)

Rafal

Rafal, they had their hands on their guns because at that point they don't know if you have any weapons on you. It's standard practice on most encounters. Just keep in mind that they want to get home safe to their families, and that the simplest car stop could turn into a tragedy in seconds. It's refreshing to know that there are agencies that will support someone's ability to spot in public areas. Happy birthday sir.

i arried NYC on the 19th for a 2 week holiday and spent about half a day spotting near Rockaway bldv in Costco wholesale. well my recent encounter with the cops was nothing but pleasant exchange of words. Maybe I was lucky, or the police here in the states are more professional than the counterparts in Australia.

I wish cops/security were that cool by DTW.