Police Delete Photos

[K14]

Wear a hoodie, preferably black, the warning film on the Ferry in Seattle advising to report suspicious folks taking photos all show thin, pale, guys, with hoodies, who kneel to shoot photos of the Ferry from low angles. I might have tried it, but have a bad knee.

Evidently kneeling really makes it suspicious. I wonder if they have heard that cell phones have cameras, or if they ever looked at Google Earth?


Regards, J

I'll have to take my try at this with my Anny Graphic Aero Ektar 178 on my next run up to Whidbey Island. When they try to take it or me, I can warn them of the dose of thorium they will receive. 😀

 

[xayraa33]

Who would run our Governments?[/QUOTE]

The usual pile of sociopaths, found in every nation and generation.

 

[Bob Michaels]

We all have to pick our battles. This is obviously one where the father and son decided was not worth fighting.

I have been in situations where I concluded the battle was not worth the victory. My rights have been repressed but I was not willing to spend the next 24 hours being shuttled from small town police department jail to small county jail to small county court where some rational judge would say "sorry, you are right. you can go free and keep your photos" Winning that local battle was not worth the sacrifice.

But I have also been in situations where I have demanded that I either be released (with film) or officially charged with a crime so I could post bond and have a judge decide if I actually committed an illegal act.

And I have been in situations in between where I agreed to stop photographing with a commitment to resolve when city hall was open.

Just don't ever begin to believe that a police officer can make the law. But do understand that they can make your life miserable short term. Then evaluate the situation and consider your reaction appropriately.

Most importantly, never reach a conclusion about any locality or agency based on the actions of one or two individuals.

 

[John Rountree]

I remember seeing pictures of a camera rigged to a rifle stock. It was designed to sell to big game hunters who wanted to hunt and photograph their prey without hurting them. Do you think an outfit like this would draw any suspicious looks? Certainly wouldn't be illegal.

 

[JohnTF]

I recall pulling out the 'blad and taking pictures of the HEX in Paddington Station and not being hassled, but that was two days before the 7/7 attacks. Nowadays, I'd likely be brought down in a flying tackle.

I hadn't heard about the "warning film" on the local ferry, but I'll have to check it out on my next crossing---to photograph one of our most prominent toxic waste sites.

It plays on a loop at the station on the overhead screen, I had to wait a while for the Ferry, if you are local you might have better timing and miss it, or just not look up, reminded me of the VD films I had seen that the Army made in WWII, what a waste of money.

I have seen unattended bags sit for hours, and actually once shot a photo of a woman planting a plastic wrapped box under a statue in front of Notre Dame in Paris. She took it and beat it when I brought someone out from the Church.

No hoodie, but a long heavy coat on a hot day in July.

Regards, John

 

[JohnTF]

I remember seeing pictures of a camera rigged to a rifle stock. It was designed to sell to big game hunters who wanted to hunt and photograph their prey without hurting them. Do you think an outfit like this would draw any suspicious looks? Certainly wouldn't be illegal.

A friend took one through TSA, they gave it a lot of attention, though it was about ten years ago.

 

[mfunnell]

The 'convicts' here may have a few rough edges but we seem to be doing a slightly better job of protecting people's rights than the motherland is doing at the moment!

Well, at least until Stephen Conroy (our much-beloved Minister for Communications) passes his legislation to force all internet traffic through a set of mandatory government censorship filters (the contents of which are to be classified Super-Dooper-Secret and the blacklist unchallengable). Kind of makes me wonder what Kevin Rudd (our Prime Minister) was discussing during that secret meeting with the Chinese Propaganda Minister recently. Firewalls, anyone?

Not that we'll be able to talk about that sort of thing much longer if Stephen gets his way.

...Mike (who isn't paranoid ... yet)

 

[mfunnell]

...actually once shot a photo of a woman planting a plastic wrapped box under a statue in front of Notre Dame in Paris.

Most security guards and many police know what to do in this circumstance: detain the photographer and ignore the parcel (especially if it makes a nice ticking noise). They know what's suspicious.

...Mike

 

[Trius]

George thinks history will prove him right. Ha.

He opened the way for O`Bama to be elected. Now look at the pickle we are in. Debt up to our eyeballs and scheduled to grow by the year to levels unimagined ever and we are not even in a war where there is some excuse for it.

Anyway poor police do not know delete does not mean gone. There is another trick called dual cards too.

Try to stay on topic.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

outrageous indeed. I think I will go and photograph every f***in policeman next time I'm in london.

 

[Larky]

I'm thinking about organising a protest, or event of some type. We'd all walk around with tripods with huge cameras on them photographing everything in minute detail.

 

[Keith]

The ironic thing is that if you did wander around with a view camera and tripod anywhere these days you'd more likely be regarded as a harmless idiot and be totally ignored! 😛

 

[Spider67]

Even here in Austria there is a tendency to come up with behaviour like that: I was told once by two securities that I am not allowed to take pics with the Jewelry shop they guarded in the background. They tried to educate me that it is not by law. Well I knew my law and went staright into the shop. Ther is no such law but simply a shopowner whose shop had been burgled (by an SUV driving straight into the glass doors early in the morning) and who thought "why shouldn't we do the same like the guys in other countries let's give it a try".
It was not a private mall- just to remind you but a public street in the center of Vienna. I would not have made such a fuss, but that place is 4 minutes away from my appartement.
Seems as if in countries who once were (like Austria) or still are monarchies there is a ltendency towards harrassment of that kind
Greetings from Vienna/Austria
Des

 

[chrishayton]

As a uk citizen and someone who has visited London a few times with my camera to take photos I would be outraged if they asked me to delete photos I had taken. I would also be prepared to go to court in order to prove a point. The scary thing is some non photographer friends are beginning to believe the hype of photographers being terrorists and whenever we discuss such issues they usually reply with '' well the police do have a point'' and see nothing wrong with the new terrorism laws brought into place even if they are ridiculous

 

[elshaneo]

Totally ridiculous indeed from the Police in UK !!!

Anyway, if this happens to me, I will indeed delete the photos in front of them, then when I get home, I use a photo recovery software to get the photos back LOL ;-)

The trick is to bring more than two memory cards with you everytime. Once you delete the photos in camera, put the memory card aside in order to recover the deleted photos at home, and just use the other memory card if you need to shoot more photos ;-)

What do you think my friends? Good trick indeed? ;-)

 

[Larky]

"The scary thing is some non photographer friends are beginning to believe the hype of photographers being terrorists and whenever we discuss such issues they usually reply with '' well the police do have a point'' and see nothing wrong with the new terrorism laws brought into place even if they are ridiculous"

You need new friends!

 

[tom_uk]

There are various campaigns afoot to publicise the fact that the police don't have powers to confiscate film/ delete images, or confiscate equipment, and the actual police authorities understand this. The problem lies with individual police officers, especially (it seems) community police officers. Only recently there was a a debate in the House of Commons where various MPs stressed the point again, and the relevant minister promised to remind police authorities of the importance of making sure that their individual officers knew the law.

I read something interesting recently (possibly in AP, which has returned to this issue a number of times) about someone who was hassled after taking pictures of the MI6 building on the Thames. Try this for yourself: do a Google search for 'mi6 building london', then when the results come up click on 'Images'. It says there are more than 32,000 available! In the context of that, harassing some little photog makes absolutely no sense at all.

 

[Trius]

The ironic thing is that if you did wander around with a view camera and tripod anywhere these days you'd more likely be regarded as a harmless idiot and be totally ignored! 😛

In my case that would be completely accurate!

 

[peterm1]

I think a group of British photogs should get together at that bus station with 4x5 view cameras and medium format gear, or other obviously pro photo equipment, and stage a 'photest.' Get an art gallery involved, do loads of advanced publicity and media hyping, and then have the gallery donate the proceeds from any prints that are able to be made to a pro civil liberties group.

Absolutely. I agree. Embarass the buggers into being reasonable

 

[JohnTF]

Most security guards and many police know what to do in this circumstance: detain the photographer and ignore the parcel (especially if it makes a nice ticking noise). They know what's suspicious.

...Mike

There is a lot of security theater, but I have reported serious instances of security problems, and have yet to get a response. I forwarded a print to authorities, and got no response as well.

I will have to check my files someday, am pretty sure you are right.

I saw a suitcase in the courtyard of the center for modern art in Paris, sat there for hours while children played nearby.

There were six Cardinals at Notre Dame at the time in a special service.

People still remain amazed that signs were ignored in NYC.

I would be surprised if there is a flight in which no luggage is tampered with.

Regards, John