Police chopper questioned for flying as low as 50 feet to break up crowd of 500 teens at Jones Beach
NASSAU COUNTY (WABC) -- There is stepped-up security at Jones Beach after about 500 teenagers gathered on the beach on Thursday for what was called "senior skip day."
Things got tense when some ended up fighting.
Police flew a helicopter low over the crowd to try and break it up, but some are asking if the helicopter was too low.
Some are questioning the heights police took on Thursday night to break up the crowd of a beach brawl.
A Nassau County chopper hovered over 500 young people to use powerful down drafts of the rotors to break up the crowd.
"It was a boxing match that may have been set up and people were around that boxing match so that it wasn't really a lot of people who were actually fighting," George Gorman New York State Regional Parks Director, said.
Someone spotted what they thought was a gun, which triggered a large police response.
But it turned out to be fake.
"That's why we had the response that we did," Gorman said.
The radar and flight path of the aircraft show the chopper's 21-minute-long flight where it circled above the crowd.
The recorded radar showed at some points the pilot was flying at an altitude of 50 feet and below.
"It was a Nassau County Police helicopter that was here," Gorman said.
"When we called the county, they said it was a state issue - they say the state has jurisdiction," Investigative reporter Dan Krauth asked.
For the operations of the helicopter, you have to contact the Nassau County police department," Gorman said.
On Friday, they didn't comment.
Aviation expert JP Tristani commented on the cell phone video.
"50 feet If you want the crowd to gain attention very quickly and it's serious enough and you've got a skilled pilot at the controls and is operating it with total safety, that's a very effective means of dispersing a crowd," Tristani said.
Federal guidelines recommend aircraft stay 1,000 feet above a congested area.
But Tristani says that's not the case for police.
"Now we're talking about using a helicopter for crowd dispersal and all those FAA rules are gone," Tristani said.
Meanwhile, the State Parks Department says they're going to continue using park rangers to screen beachgoers on a daily basis.
"The New York park police and state police are also monitoring social media to see if there's any hint of any kind of gathering that's happened last night so we'll be able to react right away," Gorman said.
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