New York police warn ‘zero tolerance’ of US Open drone flights

Despite the recent moves toward liberalizing drone flights in New York, police officials have made it abundantly clear that any unauthorized UAV spotted around this year’s US Open Tennis Tournament in Queens will be subjected to the city’s traditional bum’s rush treatment of aerial reprobates.

In comments Monday ahead of the first day of play at the US Open, New York police officials warned they’d apply a “zero tolerance policy” to anyone getting a drone aloft in or around the Flushing tennis complex. Anyone flying a craft without authorization – a virtually unattainable exemption, the city’s easing of UAV permitting notwithstanding – stands to have their craft grounded and confiscated, and themselves slapped with a fine, arrested, or both.

Read: New York City eases draconian drone rules with new drone permit process

In announcing the wider array of precautionary measures in place to prevent any unwanted or threatening…