Barely a day goes past without me reading about a photography being harassed for taking snaps in public places. Or even arrested. An all because? Security guards and police don't know the law. In the UK and US if you are standing in a public place you can photograph absolutely anything and anyone that you care take a shot of. Anything and anyone. Except for a very few well guarded military installations!

Personally I would either ask permission before taking a photo of someone, or else sneakily use a long telephoto lens from a good distance away so that they don't even know about it! Some people do object to having their photo taken and in my opinion it is a bit of an invasion of privacy, in a practical if not legal sense. But the law is the law.

Among my favourites on YouTube is this video taken of a security guard demonstrating how little he knows about the law: The Clueless Security Guard. There is also this video showing that Community Police Officers are similarly stupid: Community Police Officer Being Stupid

But the reason for this post is a statement from the UK Home Secretary today:

“Decisions may be made locally to restrict or monitor photography in reasonable circumstances. That is an operational decision for the officers involved based on the individual circumstances of each situation.....It is for the local Chief Constable, in the case of your letter the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force, to decide how his or her Officers and employees should best balance the rights to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the need for public protection.”

A typically inept politician taking an issue where the rules are clear and then clouding them so that no one really knows where they stand. What exactly constitutes 'reasonable circumstances'? And the matter is being left in the hands of the police to decide what is what? That doesn't bode well considering the Metropolitan Police Force's recent campaign....



I have located a couple of useful PDF files though which detail UK and US photographers rights for anyone who is interested:

UK Photographers Rights

USA Photographers Rights