Sherman Connecticut News

The FOIA Files

State Police Officially Clear Drone Flights, Expose Town Hall's Intimidation Tactics

In my recent reporting, I detailed how First Selectman Don Lowe and town officials have been treating the Connecticut State Police like a private security firm—dispatching troopers to silence critics and stop journalists from documenting the $42.8 million Sherman School construction project.

Town Hall's narrative has been clear: They claim that flying a drone to photograph a taxpayer-funded public project is "harassment" and illegal.

So, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the official State Police Call Summary Report (CFS #: 2600047809) from February 11, 2026. The records are in, and they prove that the only people abusing the system are sitting in Town Hall.

The "War Room" at Route 37

The police report reveals a coordinated effort to manufacture a crime where none existed. The complainants who initiated the police action weren't random, concerned citizens. They were top municipal and school officials, all operating out of 2 Route 37—the address for the Sherman Town Hall and School.

According to page 5 of the incident report, First Selectman Donald Lowe and School Superintendent Patricia Ellen Cosentino, alongside Mary Fernand and David Christopher Krause, huddled together to dispatch a State Trooper over a drone legally recording the ongoing construction.

The dispatcher's notes capture the exact nature of their complaint: "INCIDENT OF A DRONE BEING FLOWN OVER THE SHERMAN SCHOOL TO RECORD THE ONGOING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT - FILMED DURING SCHOOL HOURS AND AFTER."

Because no crime was actually being committed, dispatch couldn't even code the call as trespassing or harassment. They had to log it as a generic "SUSPICIOUS INCIDENT."

Jurisdictional Shopping & Wasted Resources

The report proves just how far the First Selectman’s office is willing to go to stop taxpayers from seeing what is happening on that construction site.

Not satisfied with just sending a State Trooper, the report details that at 10:06 AM, police resources were used to contact the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Enfield. By 10:18 AM, they had actually pulled a federal Aviation Safety Technician, Heath Fortenberry, away from his duties to investigate a local journalist's drone.

The Official Exoneration

Town Hall hoped the police would shut the cameras down. Instead, the State Police put it in writing that my journalistic activities are 100% legal.

At 11:34 AM, after consulting with federal authorities, the responding Trooper officially closed the investigation with this definitive, recorded conclusion entered into the police narrative:

"NO C.G.S.'S MAKING IT ILLEGAL TO FLY A DRONE OVER SCHOOL PROPERTY - NO SHERMAN ORDINANCES COVERING DRONES - FAA STATED THAT THERE ARE NO FEDERAL LAWS MAKING IT ILLEGAL TO FLY OVER A SCHOOL."

The Real Question

The Connecticut State Police and the FAA have now officially confirmed what the First Amendment already guarantees: Citizens have a right to photograph public officials and public projects in plain view.

If the drone flights are completely legal, why are the First Selectman and the Superintendent so terrified of a camera? Why are they coordinating from Town Hall to waste state and federal law enforcement resources just to keep eyes off the $42.8 million roof?

When politicians try this hard to stop you from looking at a construction site, it’s usually because of what they are hiding in the ledger.

---