Merry Christmas, You're Under Arrest

[Olsen]

The public enters with the understanding and awareness that they are on private property where the rights of the property owner take precedence. Mall owners can legally ban photography just as they can legally prohibit someone from pitching a tent in the food court and taking up residence.

The issue with malls and other businesses is the seemingly selective or biased focus on photographers using more noticeable equipment, such as SLR's with long lenses. People with cellphones and p&s cameras do not appear to drawing attention.

In addition, that issue -- businesses and private security guards without police powers -- needs to be considered separately from hassling of photographers in the UK and elsewhere under the auspices of legislation that legitimizes the police behavior.

I come from a country where free roaming is allowed and private property do not have this stringent protection as in the UK or US. Still, as you point to; private security guards could 'make trouble' for just anyone. The measure over here is to 'call the police'. They will most often sort out any problem and tell guards to cool it if it is about as silly an issue as photography.

That said; we are not allowed to photograph strangers on the street here without their consent. Still we do it. Most often without any problems whatsoever.

 

[Gumby]

You make Norway sound almost as repressive as you make the US sound.

 

[andrewmore]

Photography IS permitted at Victoria Railway Station

Photography IS permitted at Victoria Railway Station

Victoria Station in London is off-limits for photos. I was photographing inside the main waiting area earlier this year, using a Canon G10, hardly a pro-looking camera. A female police officer approached me and requested that I stop taking pictures inside the Station. I was about to resist, but my girlfriend quickly grabbed me by the arm and gently pulled me away. What would have happened had I insisted on continuing to shoot? I wonder.

Victoria Railway Station is run by Network Rail. Photography IS permitted within Network Railway Stations - see www.networkrail.co.uk and search for rail enthusiats or photography etc. and you will that subject to some sensible rules it is permitted and indeed encouraged. This is a case of British Transport Police not knowing what their employers permit. Why? No idea? Keep taking the pictures...

Andrew More

 

[wgerrard]

I come from a country where free roaming is allowed and private property do not have this stringent protection as in the UK or US.

Somehow I doubt that I could pitch a tent inside a Norwegian shopping center and not be asked to leave. As I understand it, this notion of "free roaming" relates to liberty to pass through someone's property. It does not eliminate the rights of the property owner.

 

[mark-b]

I am now concerned about going into any Public place to take pictures ! Isn't freedom wonderful ?

Freedom (and how much of it for you) depends on your ethnic background, believe it or not. Asians with dark complexions like myself do not have a lot of that "wonderful" freedom.

 

[januaryman]

This security obsession is frightening, and the fear expressed by parents of having their children photographed in public places needs a bit of sensibility injected - I mean are their children posing in the altogether, or in "inappropriate" poses? If so, why not stop that from happening instead of obsessing over cameras? It seems rather foolish to me.

 

[Graham Line]

That's why I don't shop in malls.

From the article,

[Mall management said,]
"When a working journalist takes photos in the mall, they are supposed to let mall management know, she said.
"A lot of our merchants don't want people to come in and film inside their store," she said.
Mall customers can bring cameras into the mall and take pictures, she said"

Do these people never just stop for a minute and listen to themselves?

 

[_mark__]

In the UK

http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/community-policing/List_of_Powers_of_PCSOs?view=Binary

The first question you should ask is,

"Have you been designated this authority by your Chief Constable?"

If they have it will have been issued to them in writing and you are entitled to ask to see it, if they cannot produce this then you can refuse all requests unless you are acting in an antisocial manner and pose a danger to others, simply denying their requests is not antisocial.

Familiarize yourself with -

Paragraph 1A of Schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002 (inserted by paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005).

Power to stop and search in authorised areas:

Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 in authorised areas to stop and search vehicles and pedestrians when in the company and under the supervision of a constable.
Paragraph 15 of Schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002