An off-duty Louisville Metro Police officer's use of a personal drone outside a downtown apartment building has set off questions about what he was doing and whether it was legal.

CNET journalist Rae Hodge first tweeted about the incident Friday afternoon, saying she received a call from her roommate about an "LMPD drone" flying outside their building, 800 Tower City Club Apartments on South Fourth Street.

Hodge's roommate, Bruce Lainhart, said the drone flew outside his and other north-facing apartments for five to seven minutes. It went to multiple floors of the 29-story building around 5:30 p.m., and it was roughly 5 to 10 feet from the apartments' balconies, he said.

Lainhart said that the apartments have windows over roughly 80% of their outside walls, meaning that "an amateur drone could have seen anything they wanted to see.”

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Lainhart, who works for the Army Corps of Engineers, said he was disturbed by the drone because he he had his young nieces over earlier last week.

"If that drone would have been flying around then, they would have certainly seen my little nieces in the privacy of my bathroom,” Lainhart said.

Hodge later tweeted out photos taken by Lainhart, showing a man wearing khakis, a black polo and a black baseball cap handling a drone outside an LMPD cruiser, numbered 6453.

Louisville police spokesman Dwight Mitchell declined to identify the officer but said he was off duty. He said that the department does not own any drones, and that it was the officer's personal drone.

“We’re not identifying him," Mitchell said. "There’s been no policy violation and no internal investigation beyond that.”

The department is not aware of any criminal reports, Mitchell said.

After the officer used the drone, he loaded it into his cruiser and turned north through an alley between Fourth and Fifth streets, turning onto Broadway and moving out of sight, according to Lainhart, who added that the police cruiser was parked in the back lot of the Brown Bros. Cadillac dealership farther down the street.

This is not Kentucky's first drone controversy. In July 2015, William Meredith shot down a drone Hillview home. The owner of the drone, John David Boggs, filed a lawsuit against Meredith in 2016 — which a judge subsequently dismissed in 2017 due to a "lack of subject matter jurisdiction."

According to federal regulations, a drone being operated for leisure use must be registered with the FAA and flown for hobby or recreational purposes only. Kentucky statutes say that drones can't be operated "in a reckless manner so as to create a risk of serious physical injury to another or a risk of damage to property” and must be compliant with federal regulation.

In 2018, the Kentucky legislature passed a law forbidding law enforcement agencies from using drones to conduct searches unless allowed by the U.S. and state constitutions. It also says that if the search is done under a warrant, the warrant has to "specifically authorize" use of the craft.

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Amber Duke, spokeswoman for the ACLU of Kentucky, said that the courts haven't been clear about the rules surrounding drones for personal use. She added that the concern of seeing a police officer operate a drone out of a cruiser is "legitimate."

“Obviously, if citizens are in their homes and see an LMPD cruiser and a drone is flying around, people are going to think that drone is in use for police activity,” Duke said. “If LMPD wants to be responsive to peoples’ concerns, it’s an opportunity for them to look at their policies about the activities officers are allowed to do off duty while in their cruisers.”

Lainhart said that he reported his concern with a concierge at the building but has not heard back from the property manager.

When The Courier Journal called the number listed for 800 Tower City Club Apartments, an employee gave an email to contact the property manager. The property manager has not immediately replied to an email seeking comment.

Lainhart said that the situation has made him "very uncomfortable" and that he is "fearing for his safety" as a citizen.

“Right now, my trust is eroded in our police department – especially if they’re not going to be forthcoming about one of their own operating their own personal drone out of a police cruiser,” Lainhart said.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.