Public Photography and the Police

Public Photography and the Police

  • I was arrested or charged with a crime.

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • I was detained for an excessive amount of time.

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • I was stopped briefly and my ID used for a warrant check.

    Votes: 14 13.6%

  • I was just asked questions.

    Votes: 33 32.0%

  • I've never been bugged at all by police.

    Votes: 54 52.4%
  • Total voters
    103
rover said:
Based on this poll we are doing a whole lot of talking about something few have experienced.
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Sure looks like you are right. I have never been hassled by a cop over taking a photo. Then again, if I think doing so would create a situation I don't bother. Given the worldwide terrorist threat and consequent paranoia over it the obvious situation where you might get hassled are easy to avoid. Taking a photo of the US embassy in Ottawa is one example. The thought that taking such a photo would lead to a hassle is a sad comment on the times we live in and I don't think that kind of thought process should be necessary.

Nikon Bob
 
copake_ham said:
We've heard it all before - Socke went to Cuba so thinks he cannot come here. Some old-style Labourite in Britain signed a petition and says he's on "the list".
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George, have you ever seen the questionaire you have to fill out on the plane before entering the USA?

It's been changed since 1999, but then it was a bit funny and a bit humilating.

Believe it or not, they wanted to know if I was a member in the National Socialist Party and took part in war crimes before 1945 :bang:
Or if I want to commit crimes in the USA, sure I'll answer trhuthfull if it were so :bang:
An no, I don't use drugs, don't have AIDS and was never arrested and and and.

Certain USA agencies kidnapping german citizens to interrogate them in foreign contries are, hm, disturbing. Actualy we're a sovereign country and if they have a case against one of our citizens then they can present it to the local authorities.

What would happen when the german intelligence service abducts a US citizen in New York and bring him to Afghanistan for interrogation then dump him somewhere in Mexico?


And another thing, as Andy K allready pointed out we're used to terrorism in Europe, be it the IRA in Britain, the ETA in Spain or the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) in Germany.
So we're somewhat relaxed, may be to much so.
 
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Been questioned a few times. Nothing serious.

That was years ago and now anyone with a camera is a terrorist (suspect).

I due wish someone could explain how terrorists use photography to accomplish their ends. I have never had even a bad explanation.
 
My wife and I were passing the U.S. Embassy in Paris last year and she was about to take a photograph of the building when the French Police stopped her and informed her it was illegal. On the way back after our walk she happen to ask one of the same policemen what other embacies were on this street. The younger of the two got very agressive. I explained to the other older officer that I was a police office and my wife was a U.S. Navy Commander. This seemed to put them at ease, but it bothered me that I could not photograph the building.
 
I was at LAX in 2003 with my family and as we were waiting for our flight to Hawaii, I decided to take my camera out and take pictures of my son who was playing around - all over the place.

Before you know it, I have a couple of officers standing behind me asking what I was doing. It seems an older couple decided that I was trying to take pictures of the airport - especially as my infant son was holding the glass of the terminal and walking alongside it - they presumed that I was trying to take pictures of planes landing and taking off and zooming in using my digital camera to get vital details on the airport.

Here's the ironic part. I was using a digital SLR (Canon 10D) with a 35mm f1.4 lens (as light was low). When asked, I simply showed them what I was taking pictures of and after they looked at a few pictures, they smiled and left. To me, I could not find any reason to blame the cops or be angry with them or even feel anything bad for them asking me what I was doing and they were very professional and polite.

It's not the cops who are to be blamed if they come over and ask you questions. It's the general ignorant public who is afraid and has been brought to be that way thanks to the media (and the politics behind it).
 
On a solo road trip to Montana in 2002, I was stopped, and detained for almost 2 hours after taking a picture of an oil refinery along the highway.
My car was searched without a warrant or my permission, my camera was taken from me, and I was told by the sheriff who'd stopped me that I had committed a crime.
Later, another policeman showed up, as well as a representative from the refinery. Eventually I was let go, with my camera.
I wrote the President for the one time in my life after that event.
I am a lifelong Seattle area resident and politically libertarian.
I consider the event an arrest, and if that happened to me now I'd get the ACLU involved.
I
 
Here's the picture.
For those who haven't experienced this yet, I suggest you think about it.
 

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Joe Mondello said:
colinh said:
Gods! Your prof looks a bit liberal!

colin
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That's Joe Holmes. Joe is a great guy. His work is here . . .

http://portfolio.streetnine.com/projects.html
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Liked the workspaces images - especially the first one.

Joe is showing the cop a copy of the Rules Of Conduct for the NYC Subways which specifically ALLOWS photography.
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The cop doesn't look convinced. :)

Anyway, no disrespect intented. I sometimes wonder why 'liberal' seems to be taken as derogatory.

Excerpts from a dictionary:

1 open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values

• favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms

favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform
 
Bryce said:
Here's the picture.
For those who haven't experienced this yet, I suggest you think about it.
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Bryce,

Absolutely! Too many pass this off as no big deal. Once you have been detained, threatened and treated like a criminal these "incidents" take on a far more serious tone. Being detained by armed authorities while you are acting in a peaceful and lawful manner is unnerving...especially when the people detaining you can't tell you exactly what law you broke or why you are being detained.

Bob
 
I sometimes wonder why 'liberal' seems to be taken as derogatory.
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Only in some circles... Specifically, the stupid ones. That phenomenon is due to the proliferation of conservative AM hate-jock radio and Fox Noise and the members of their cult who should wear togas, shave their heads, bang tambourines, and sell daisies at airports to raise funds for whatever RW nitwit candidate dictated by the likes of Ann Coulter. Don't laugh, sending the brainwashed out to sell daisies at airports made enough dough for Sun Myung Moon to start the RW Washington Times.

Back on topic... never was stopped by the poe-leece, but I did once voluntarily give up a roll of XP2 Super to the irate owner of a diner for taking a picture of a hambuger and Coke waiting for waitress pick up. Would have been a cool shot too, I think, with the kitchen workers blurred in the background... Man, was she pissed. She spoke with a thick accent, I think she was either a Korean or Chinese immigrant. I think she thought I was a perv trying to take pictures of the waitresses - not to be mean, but none of whom were worth wasting a frame on.

Never ate there again. Shame. Cheap and good breakfast specials, and great diner coffee... lots of local color, especially at the single seat counters, where the raspy-voiced regulars would read the newspaper and spend half their day there, dying out their cigarettes, which they chain-smoked, in those dented up bronze colored metal diner ashtrays seen only at the finest of truck stops.

Those types of places are dying out, along with the folks who think "liberal" is a dirty word.
 
Just as a matter of interest ... I don't know how many of you remember my post a few weeks back regarding my incident with the police at a local shopping centre?

Last night I was at a party and a woman came up to me and said that a friend of hers was at the shopping centre and had seen the deplorable way I was treated ... and not to hesitate to contact her if I needed a witness in any ongoing actions I may decide to take.

Quite made my night it did! :)
 
I remember a teenager (I think she was about 13 or 14) that was followed by a policeman, and asked for her camera (this was a few years ago). She was taking pictures at a shopping mall with her friends (I had seen her about half an hour before). He said that she could be a terrorist, and he had to be sure about the photos she was taking were safe.

There are a lot of things wrong with how officers are screened and trained (and paid). Not all are bad; the few that are spoil the reputation of the rest. There are many roots to this problem. One of these is people don't want to pay the taxes necessary to have the infrastructure necessary to have a reliable, capable law enforcement community.
 
I've had a lot of experience with cops over the years, and I find that you get a range of intelligence that's about what you get for teachers or postal workers, etc. The problem is, the dumber a cop is, the more likely he is to remain on the street. That's not always the case, of course, but it is often enough -- and the dumber ones often have the impression that the law is what they say it is. That can lead to problems, and sometimes, to tragedies.

One thing that television could do, if it weren't so devoted to spreading crap, would be to spend some time teaching (on their ubiquitous cops shows) some things about individual rights, which most often get smirked at. They could also make a few other points: like what earthly good would it do to take a picture of the outside of the Empire State Building from Fifth Avenue if you were planning to fly plane into it? I don't know if any of the 9/11 people took pictures -- I've never seen it mentioned. What they did was, rehearse. You really need a photograph to know what the inside of a plane looks like, or a gate at the airport?

I once worked with a professional in NYC, and he DID say that in certain places, you need a peermit to shoot -- it's like a tax on a business activity. They don't really want you setting up lighting equipment on a sidewalk to take a portrait...not so much that that it wouldn't be okay if one person did it, but they don't want several hundred people doing it. There are parts of LA that are so frequently used for movie shots that residents now protest and interfere with shots because they are done too often, and block traffic, and screw up acess, etc. That all seems like a different thing, though...

JC
 
Pascal said:
I was at LAX in 2003 with my family and as we were waiting for our flight to Hawaii, I decided to take my camera out and take pictures of my son who was playing around - all over the place.

Before you know it, I have a couple of officers standing behind me asking what I was doing. It seems an older couple decided that I was trying to take pictures of the airport - especially as my infant son was holding the glass of the terminal and walking alongside it - they presumed that I was trying to take pictures of planes landing and taking off and zooming in using my digital camera to get vital details on the airport.

Here's the ironic part. I was using a digital SLR (Canon 10D) with a 35mm f1.4 lens (as light was low). When asked, I simply showed them what I was taking pictures of and after they looked at a few pictures, they smiled and left. To me, I could not find any reason to blame the cops or be angry with them or even feel anything bad for them asking me what I was doing and they were very professional and polite.
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Hmm, interesting. I was also in LAX in '03 and managed to tick off one of the security when I took a picture of the security lineup, but they only waved me off from a distance, and didn't even bother to come after me.

We went to Hawaii in '05, and I was shooting planes at the airport with a 500mm lens.

All in all, I've had much more trouble with parking and waiting for people at airports than anything else.
 
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