Not-a-crime: Police U-Turn

This following message was circulated by Andy Trotter (Association of Chief Police Officers) to police forces in England and Wales (quoted from the Independent, 5 December 2009):


"Officers and PCSOs are reminded that we should not be stopping and searching people for taking photos.

There are very clear rules around how stop-and-search powers can be used. However, there are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place. Therefore members of the public and press should not be prevented from doing so.

We need to co-operate with the media and amateur photographers. They play a vital role as their images help us identify criminals.

We must acknowledge that citizen journalism is a feature of modern life and police officers are now photographed and filmed more than ever.

However, unnecessarily restricting photography, whether from the casual tourist or professional is unacceptable and worse still, it undermines public confidence in the police service."

Read the full Independent article here.

not a crime

not a crime
Originally uploaded by fotoshoota.com

In the United Kingdom "the police routinely invoke anti-terror legislation to prevent photographers from carrying out their work, and photojournalists are constantly filmed at public gatherings and their details kept on an ever-growing database." And this police activity is also no increasingly being used against tourists and amateur photographers.

Yesterday the press reported yet again of another high profile photographer that was stopped and issued with an anti-terrorism stop and search form - this at St Paul's Cathedral, a London landmark photographed by thousands of people every day.