Cop said you can't do that here.

Liu21 · Oct 19, 2016

So while i was digging in my hole, a police SUV came up behind me and pulls up alongside me.
The officer (A) on the driver side asked, "What are you doing?
I : Metal detecting.

Officer A : "Do you work for the parks department"?

I : no, sir.

Officer A : "Well, you cant do that here."

I : Well, I have a permit.

Officer A : Let me see it, *Gets out of the vehicle.

Im thinking, here we go again... *gets up, pull out my wallet and dig out my MDing permit, unfolds it and hands it over to the officer.

Officer A: is actively looking over my permit.

Officer B came over from the other side. both looking at my permit,

Officer B : reads out half of line 7.

Me : I fill in all my holes and leave the area like i was never here. while gesturing with my hand to where i had been. I then inform Officer A, who was still looking at my permit, that the parks department added a whole list of new parks to the allowed list for metal detecting, it's on the back. Officer A, flips the permit over and says "Brooklyn".... "XXXXXX Park". Officer A then flips the permit back over and continues looking at my permit, say something of the sort "Look at how its just written in" to officer B. He then asks how did i get the permit, I said I mailed the application to 123 something in the city, the parks department office. Officer A : and this is what they maill back to you? I, yep.

Officer A : alright Im going to have to look it up with the park's official, because the permit dont look official. while handing me back my permit. They then get back in their vehicle, I said you can always go to the parks department website and look it up.

Officer A : That's not the thing, I still to have to check with parks official.

Me : okay, have a nice day.

officers drives away.....

about 10 minutes later, a park staff person comes over and say "Just make sure you fill in your holes" I reply with I always do.

Why do i get the feeling the Cop was thinking This guy is going to get a summons today! but The law was on my side and he felt bitter, that i got the better of him, because when I said "Have a nice day", he didnt say anything back, and I got the impression he was not happy or pleased.

Anyways i scored silver early on today's dig, two rosies from one hole, and a nice small sterling silver ring to end it...

Tom_in_CA · Oct 23, 2016

I cited this an example of the psychology compared to md'ing in the past. And someone else wisely pointed out that.... on the contrary, this example only shows the POSITIVE of a city and hobbyists "working together" to solve a problem. Far from being a "no", it turned out to be a "yes" (in the end). So how can this be used as an example of my point ?

To which I turned it around as said "sure, but ask yourself why it was ever on anyone's radar at city hall to begin with ??". Why the headaches in the first place ? I mean , seriously now, besides one single "arborist" , in a city with a population of 150k, do you think ANYONE else besides him would ever have dreamed up anything like that ? And seriously now, if that arborist had just "happened to be driving by" before all this flap, do you think he'd have glanced twice at kids with a rope strung between 2 trees? Probably not.

Liu21 · Oct 23, 2016

I think rules or permit system comes to being, from either 1. someone asked if they can do something. Then there is 2. Where that someone was doing it, and someone ELSE saw what the person was doing and did not like it, thus bringing it up to the attention of officials.

Tom_in_CA · Oct 23, 2016

Liu21 said:
.... Where that someone was doing it, and someone ELSE saw what the person was doing and did not like it, thus bringing it up to the attention of officials.

Correct. Which is why it's a good idea to pick low traffic times. In fact, a lot of my turf hunting is done at night for this very reason. Detecting has connotations , and you're not going to get every last person on earth to love and approve of you

Liu21 · Oct 24, 2016

Tom_in_CA said:
Correct. Which is why it's a good idea to pick low traffic times. In fact, a lot of my turf hunting is done at night for this very reason. Detecting has connotations , and you're not going to get every last person on earth to love and approve of you

I don't think it is safe to detect here at night in New York City. lol I know in prospect park, here in Brooklyn, there are some vigilante type crazys that hang out around the park. They're the ones trying to ban people from fishing, and taking pictures of people digging holes. My options are very limited, here in the city. Kinda wish I lived out in the country or a smaller town with access to open fields...

Escape · Oct 24, 2016

This cop was not out to fill a quota, he was exercising his authority because he can. Unfortunately, there are some cops that get off on this
Usually rookies. Glad you were able to have an ' in your face moment' and show him your permit. They love permits in NYC. There is even a permit to kayak in the water ways. I'm waiting for someone to get hit with a frisbee and complain. Then we will have frisbee permits.
But all in all I think the detecting permits work in NYC. Before they were instituted you had people digging up parks with pick axes and shovels. They also expanded the number of parks you can detect in, which is really good. It shows that we are being viewed as responsible in our hobby.

SD51 · Oct 24, 2016

You handled that well and congrats on the nice silver finds.

G.I.B. · Oct 24, 2016

Tom_in_CA said:
The final result was : A permit and lots of rules associated with it.

I checked into the story and I don't see any of the requirements for a permit, or the rules. Just that someone is upset with it.

I'm glad they don't practice that here. I'd hate to try to navigate my way through a park with these lines strung up over otherwise open areas. One slack line could conceivably shut down any number of other activities.

The concept of someone taking a fall, maybe a tree broke, or someone on a bike ran into the slack line, and an injury occurred- yeah, lawyers suing the crap out of the city...

I was interested to see what it takes to get a permit, but I guess that information is not available.

Liu21 · Oct 24, 2016

Escape said:
This cop was not out to fill a quota, he was exercising his authority because he can. Unfortunately, there are some cops that get off on this
Usually rookies. Glad you were able to have an ' in your face moment' and show him your permit. They love permits in NYC. There is even a permit to kayak in the water ways. I'm waiting for someone to get hit with a frisbee and complain. Then we will have frisbee permits.
But all in all I think the detecting permits work in NYC. Before they were instituted you had people digging up parks with pick axes and shovels. They also expanded the number of parks you can detect in, which is really good. It shows that we are being viewed as responsible in our hobby.

The Cop drove on the grass to get to me, he was on a mission for sure.. lol

CaballoDeOro · Oct 24, 2016

Tom_in_CA said:
why ? Do you doubt such an evolution could exist ?

Busted.

banjonyc · Oct 24, 2016

Man, I never carry my permit with me in NYC. I guess I really should. I do mostly beach detecting and while there are tons of park rangers out there, they never bother me at all. I'm waiting for the new year to renew my permit, as I have not had one in a few years.

Tom_in_CA · Oct 24, 2016

caballoDeOro & G.I.B. : I'm not sure what links you found to this story, but

a) it was someone inquiring "can I do such & such" for an activity which apparently was never an issue prior to that.

b) an initial answer of "no" from the city. Hence constituting a "rule" (I mean, pretty hard to argue with a "no" from city hall, eh ? whether you call that a "rule" or a "policy" or whatever)

c) It was eventually overturned after several council meetings with petitioning parents and slack-line enthusiasts.

d) The "compromise" was that they had to use rubber cushion material. And perhaps limited to certain parks, certain safety wear, certain heights, etc.... Not sure whether you'd call that a 'permit' (as in a paper you get and carry in your wallet), or "permitted" as in, allowed if-you-jump through certain restrictions.

But insofar as a paper "permit", it appears none is issued for this. So I stand corrected. However, the analogy still stands: because it was a "no" and a fight to get it back. All because someone took it upon themselves to seek permissions for something that previously had no restrictions.