Photographing police

[TCampbell]

Photographer's rights and photographing in public has come up around here a few times.

I thought I'd link this story about a federal judge's ruling to police:

Federal Judge to Camera-Shy Austin Cops: People Have a Right to Record You. Deal With It. - Hit & Run : Reason.com

 

[hamlet]

You must look into your local laws regarding photography. Here in Belgium for example, photography far more restrictive and you can get in a lot of trouble if you are ignorant of the laws.

 

[Victo]

Same in UK. Police can not prevent you from photographing them.

 

[dennybeall]

Photographing is one thing, and it's allowed. What's not allowed is getting in the officers way or exacerbating the situation in progress. People get looking through the viewfinder and lose sight of the big picture. How many videos have we seen of people taking pictures while a car or horse or bike rider runs right into them.
Many pros learn to look through the viewfinder with one eye and keep the other eye open to watch the surrounding area.

 

[hamlet]

Photographing is one thing, and it's allowed. What's not allowed is getting in the officers way or exacerbating the situation in progress. People get looking through the viewfinder and lose sight of the big picture. How many videos have we seen of people taking pictures while a car or horse or bike rider runs right into them.
Many pros learn to look through the viewfinder with one eye and keep the other eye open to watch the surrounding area.

You should make a slogan out of that: "you had the law on your side, but not the laws of physics." :flower:

 

[weepete]

Same in UK. Police can not prevent you from photographing them.

True, and they can't delete images from your device either. Though they can seize you camera and memory cars if they believe you have evidence of a crime on it.

Mark Thomas (a UK left wing political comedian) did a recent stunt where he photographed many police officers while they were in public and not dealing with any incedents. It was a bit of a protest about how the police in the UK use photographic and vido survellance of prostesters doing nothing wrong and excercising their legal right of peaceful protest, on his 100 minor acts of discent tour. Most were ok with it, a lot of them were quite happy for their photo to be taken and a significant number posed for the camera and those that were cagey about it or gave him the fingers or generally gave him crap for doing it got their photos posted up on a slideshow on his tour.

 

[Josh66]

It's a touchy subject - I don't really know how much I can say without running afoul of TPF's policies...

On the one hand, this is directly related to photography, but on the other hand it will get very political (which is taboo here) very quickly...

I think that very often the police go too far. I guess I will wait and see how the thread goes before I elaborate, lol.

 

[Braineack]

The courts rule on this day in and out and yet cops still keep making up laws to arrest them. Cops hates cameras simply because cameras mean accountability.

 

[Braineack]

The courts rule on this day in and out and yet cops still keep making up laws to arrest them. Cops hates cameras simply because cameras mean accountability.

example: Covina officer probed over arrest of man filming police activity

A Covina police officer who arrested a Pomona man filming a reported domestic dispute call and then detaining him for six hours is under administrative investigation by his superiors.

...

Robin was arrested for obstructing police business and providing false identification, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him when police forwarded the charges, according to Sgt. Rob Bobkiewicz. Robin was released at 12:15 a.m. on July 1, roughly six hours after his arrest the previous evening, according to a booking document.

...

Raney declined to comment on the specifics of the administrative investigation of Counts, but he noted that the officer underwent training about a citizen’s right to film in public spaces multiple times before and after the incident. Counts remains on duty.