Originally Posted by
astrohog
Init, I totally get where you are coming from. The distinction I am making is that the CHP (in this instance) is employed for the sole purpose of enforcing state law and have no obligation (again, as far as I’m aware) to enforce any FAA regs, that role is primarily on the FAA’ss enforcement arm. To me, that distinction is key to my statement and stance in this discussion. I may be splitting hairs, but that is part of my nature!
That's cool and I totally understand your point that the local LEOs aren't under any mandate to help the FAA. It's also my belief that they wouldn't one day just up and decide to stop by the local flying field checking for UAS violations unprompted, they've got their regular duties to attend to, but if prompted by a complaint call and forced to respond to the field they would take whatever action needed to mitigate the situation. If the people at the field behaved reasonably to the officer's requests to cease and desist the actions that caused the complaint call, I'm fairly sure that'd be the end of it. But if the people at the field tried to pull the ol "Your not the FAA, so you can't tell us how to fly" I'd bet the poop would hit the fan very quickly, with the LEO using all the means at his disposal to punish the insolence, up to and including presenting whatever evidence was collected to the FAA.