First off when choppers do fly by's they are using infrared. I'm fairly experienced with these systems and know enough that cfls couldn't possibly put off enough heat to cause a concern to someone looking for substantial commercial outfits. For all they know you have a lizard tank or a some kinda of reptile terrarium.
Second do some research on the internet about your local laws on this topic. I don't know what region you live in but in my neck of the woods they penitalize that amount of usable product. Meaning if you don't have it dried and ready to smoke its just an illegal hobby that amounts to a swift smack on the wrist. Im super paranoid and little research put all my worries to ease.

Now about lst scrogs and topping. Now I'm an arborist and what my job taught me is that when you cut the top off a plant(tree flower or weed, a plant is a plant) it will literally change the chemistry of the plant. I don't know how and to what effect it cause weeds but I'm guessing very minimal. I know if you cut the top of a tree all the growth hormones get redirected to the bottom branches more cause of how the tree adsorbs the nutes. But I know that if you cut the bottom limbs off a tree you will notice a dramatic shape difference in which the tree will stretch and start to grow slimmer. I don't know how that would work with weeds but I do know a plant is a plant!
L.S.T. is probably the best thing you could do for your plants. This is my first grow also but as an arborist i kinda have a foot in the door and know the only way you could hurt your tree is by either mutilating or choking your stem. For choking i mean tying a string around it so tight it hinders the growth and could cause damage. Now mutilating the stem wont kill it per say but it could kill the damaged area on up.
One Tip: I tried to train my best girl over and just the weight of the top folded her right in half. I panicked all the way up to the point of " oh shit that's my best cola i will get, oh well i just want the seeds". And i left it like that and that was about a week ago. the stem is still kinked in half but the top isn't showing in signs of stress and in fact it turned over just like I hoped and all is looking swell. Now I keep a good eye on it and if it show any kind of stress then I think I will just cut it up into as many clones I can get.