Law Enforcement vs. The Photographer
December 13, 2009 by becthomas
Filed under Photography
We live in a day and age where it seems letting fear rule is the order of the day. I’m fairly certain that this current decade will go down in history as the decade of perceived fear… This attitude has caused a lot of grief for photographers, from England where you may or may not get stopped at random for taking a photo where law enforcement are present to America where half our law enforcement seem to have forgotten what they’re jobs actually are. I ran across a video today of a cop detaining a photographer for no other reason than taking photo’s in a public place (which is legal anywhere in the US) because he could possibly sell those photo at a later date to a terrorist group. I guess he forgot that in the US you’re innocent until proven guilty and you can’t be arrested for possible unlikely future crimes…
If you’re a photographer you do have the right to take photos on publicly owned property, it’s actually a first amendment right and our Supreme Court has ruled many times on our first amendment freedoms to make this point very clear. You do not have to show the police your photos unless they have a warrant. You do have the right to take photos of subways, bus stops, government buildings, banks and anything else you can see from a side walk. Police cannot take your camera from you unless they have a warrant and they cannot delete your photos either. No matter what they say to you they cannot legally do these things and if they do you can take legal action against them.
If you do get stopped for taking photos stay polite and remind them that you do indeed have the right to take photos in public places in America, you may even remind them that unless they are charging you with a crime and get a warrant they can’t take your camera or pictures and need to let you get back to work. If they do make threats to you remember to get their names and badge numbers.
It really is a sad time period in America when police stop random people for taking photos because they could be a terrorist; really terrorists can just look on the web to find photo’s of just about everything if they want them, they don’t actually need to go get them themselves. Just remember you have rights, no matter how they may tell you otherwise…
uberVU - social comments on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 7:37 PM
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by BecThomasPhoto: Law Enforcement vs. The Photographer http://tinyurl.com/y9bydql...
Jason on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 7:54 PM
Interesting video – but they were both wrong:
While the cop was definitely boisterous in his approach, and even flat out wrong on the metro rules, he does have the right to question anyone if he suspects them.
The fact that the guy resisted even giving out his ID (which is required if requested) just antagonized the situation further than it had to be. The fact that he was also recording video without the officer knowing is just a prelude to further exacerbate the situation.
If a photographer is out taking pictures for artistic purposes, and is approached by an officer asking “why are you taking pictures?”, the best response is “Oh, sorry – working on a photo project where I am putting together a compilation of X scenes and the light in here was just super cool. I’d show you but this is an old school film camera. Is it against the law to take pictures down here because I don’t want to get in trouble or break the law or anything?”
If you are open and amicable, cops usually will say “No worries, just had to check…” Even if they want to pretend to know more than they do, and say something like “Yes, it’s against the metro rules”, just be prepared and say – “Oh, geez, that must be a new thing because I checked the website today before I came down and called in advance to make sure it was ok – no one had said anything about any new rules. I’ll check with metro tomorrow and get a permit if needed – sorry I bothered you.”
There are ways to defuse any situation, and if you are calm, prepared, and open, most of the time cops are more than happy to accommodate your creative efforts.
Perfect example of this happened to me AT AN AIRPORT! I was in the parking lot taking some shots (nice light and angles), and when a cop came up on a bicycle and asked me. Not only did I happily accommodate her requests and even show her the pictures, I remained excited about the pictures and how cool it was because of the golden hour. She smiled and left within a minute. (I gave her a business card too in case she was married, had kids, or knew anyone that wanted some photography done for them…)
It’s all in your approach, and while the cop was out of line, I think the kid was also out looking for a confrontation.
Jason on Sun, 13th Dec 2009 8:03 PM
Another follow up where I actually was wrong – Market Street Station – was taking pics and a cop approached and asked if I had slipped or fallen or something – used the same approach and the guy actually expressed interest so gave him a card too – turns our the RTD does have rules, and when I found out said “Sorry, I’ll delete these if you need me to” and his reply:
“Naw, you are fine – it’s pretty clear you are just out taking fun photography stuff – I’ll check out your website and let you know about the shoot” (His daughter was getting married – turned out she already booked a photog…)
There’s a fine line… | Canon Blogger on Mon, 14th Dec 2009 2:05 AM
[...] through my daily blog reads, and weekly reader posts, I was reading a post from friend-of-the-blog Becky Thomas. She had a post up on her blog about someone who was detained (note – detained, not [...]
Brian Noah on Sat, 19th Dec 2009 1:52 AM
Right ON!
There’s a fine line… | Photo Latest on Wed, 6th Jan 2010 2:08 PM
[...] through my daily blog reads, and weekly reader posts, I was reading a post from friend-of-the-blog Becky Thomas. She had a post up on her blog about someone who was detained (note – detained, not [...]