Police, Camera, Civil Action!

Police, Camera, Civil Action!

Stop & Search

On the way to pick up my son from school today I drove past what appeared to be a number of police officers carrying out a “stop and search” on a man of about 20 years of age.

I parked the car where I normally would, safely, against the kerb and facing the correct direction on the left side of the road. I had my camera with me, not unusual really, it goes almost everywhere with me these days, so I wondered if I could take a photo of the dramatic scene, there were two police cars, one marked the other not so. Also in attendance were two CSO’s (Police Community Support Officers) who also do as valuable a job as the West Mercia Police Constabulary.

Taking off the 18-55 Kit lens, I screwed on my 70-300 Sigma as I was quite a way from the scene. I stepped out of the car onto the pavement and took three photos of the scene.

The scene wasn’t that enthralling really, if I’d wanted a better shot I should have stopped the car closer to them.

Swapping the lenses back so it would fit in my case properly I packed it away and sat awaiting the time to alight from the vehicle to go and fetch my son. I was listening to Radio Four and there was some discussion on Middle Eastern Politics and the Iranian Nuclear program.

Unmarked Car

Then a black Volvo, an unmarked police car pulled up in front of me, blocking someone’s drive off. On the opposite side of the road a marked Astra pulled up on the kerb.

Out of the Volvo stepped a female police officer who walked around to my drivers window, which I duly opened. She asked what I was taking photos of so I explained the situation. She asked to see them on the LCD so I showed her the three photos. She then asked me for some details, name, address, d.o.b. etc, which I happily provided to her in a polite and respectful manner. She said “we’ll have to check you out as your taking photos by a school” implying that I was somehow guilty of being a sexual deviant. I’m not.

At this point the female office moved away and a rather more stern officer appeared at my window and asked the same questions and suggested it was weird taking photos near to a school and why was I there. I repeated, politely my responses and then he asked if I knew what his job was in the force, “I could be an undercover officer, and if you take photos of me then you could be jeopardising my safety if someone recognises me”. He then asked me to delete the photos after seeing them for himself.

Being super polite i said that I would delete them because he’d asked nicely but I also reminded him that I didn’t have to, it was my right to take photos in a public place. This got his back up a bit and as I was deleting them he was making comments about being suspicious taking photos around the school. I felt again like I was being accused of being something that I abhor.

The photos I took were facing the opposite way from the school and there were no kids about as the bell hadn’t rung by then. If there had been kids coming out of school I certainly wouldn’t have snapped the pictures.

In my opinion, the police involved just didn’t like having their photos taken. While that may seem reasonable, I was in a public area taking photos of a scene that was interesting (to me at least) and I was causing no concern to the public.

When I got home I ran my SD card through a piece of recovery software to retrieve the images and the above photo is one of them. The faces of all people involved have been pixelated to avoid any persons being recognised. As you can see, it wasn’t a very interesting picture and I would have deleted it upon getting home anyway.

Cameras For The Common Good

This got me thinking then, that if it wasn’t for people with cameras, certain events and occurrences of brutality would not have been captured and used to bring the guilty to trial. I’m not just talking about the police here either, there have been other groups brought to justice due to photographs taken by members of the public. What about the many photos that were used as evidence to support the police in times of riots, looting and unrest.

Does the fact that someone has taken a picture of them put them ill at ease? Well what about the many pictures that are taken of everyone each day by the multitude of CCTV cameras in our areas, the Police vehicles and the Safety Camera vans that regularly capture footage of drivers who are completely law-abiding and innocent.

If I asked these people to delete their photos or footage of me, it might make them think I had something to hide. Does that then imply that the police had something to hide by asking me to delete the photos?

Even if you couldn’t get them to delete the footage you are entitled to ask for a copy of the media in question. Mark Thomas who used to broadcast the Mark Thomas Comedy Product is to thank for my better understanding of the data protection act. In series 5 episode one, titled “CCTV & the Data Protection Act” he made some great points, that enabled me to get a video of myself going through a speed trap. You can see that, here, I did pay the £60 fine and had the points but it was worth the extra £10 to make them get the very short video for me.

Photographers Rights.

Another great way to find out info is by looking on YouTube, the best one I’ve found so far is the Black Belt Barrister, check it out.

Your opinion?

Feel free to have an opinion, my opinion is my own and doesn’t represent anyone else’s views.

Have you suffered from this type of behaviour before?

Do you think the police were right to ask me to delete the photos?

Leave a comment if you wish to have an input, I’m interested to know what you all think.