Enlarge / Jordan Clarence Rogers fired a laser similar to this one that was aimed upwards in Egypt in 2012. (credit: Ed Giles / Getty Images News)

A Kansas City man was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in September 2016 to pointing a laser at a local police helicopter.

Jordan Clarence Rogers has now joined the ranks of people who have been convicted of laser strikes relative to the thousands of incidents that are reported to the Federal Aviation Administration every year.

The federal government takes such laser strikes very seriously and prosecutes cases when and where it can. The Department of Justice told Ars that more than 28,000 laser illumination incidents in the United States have been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration between 2011 and 2015. But as of 2014, only 134 arrests were made, and there were only 80 convictions.