[PRCo] Photography

[Phillip Clark Campbell]

http://news.yahoo.com/government-war-cameras-160402195.html;_ylt=AhPiz2ixdSl2Du0JYBAF.JAD.7t_;_ylu=X3oDMTQ3dGkyMWlpBGNjb2RlA3ZzaGFyZWFnMnVwcmVzdARwa2cDM2RiNWViYjctZGViMS0zZjQxLTg1YWUtODBiN2ZmNGY0NWE0BHBvcwMxMARzZWMDQXJ0aWNsZSBOZXdzIEZvciBZb3UEdmVyA2U1YTQ1YWEwLWE5N2ItMTFlMC04MWVmLTVjNzhlZTFjNWViZA--;_ylg=X3oDMTMybWo4ZmFxBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNjA3NjA5YTEtOGY2Yy0zOWRkLTk2NGMtNmI3YTE4ZTA2ZWMwBHBzdGNhdANoZWFsdGh8dml0YWxpdHkEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3
Excerpts below:

Phil


The government’s war on cameras
Jerome Vorus was taking pictures of the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. last July when he 
decided to snap some photographs of a routine traffic stop.

Little did he know he would soon 
find himself detained by police for photographing them without 
permission. Of course, Vorus was well within his rights, but he still 
had to wait an hour and a half in the back of a squad car before the 
officers released him. (TSA employee caught stuffing passengers’ junk in his trunks)
“This is happening more and more,” Vorus said in a phone interview. 
“Police are arresting journalists, photographers and tourists, often 
using excuses like terrorism or security.”

A motorcyclist in Maryland was also charged with eavesdropping in April after he uploaded a video to YouTube — caught on his helmet 
cam — of a state trooper stopping him with a drawn gun. Police showed up at his house four days after the traffic stop with a warrant for four 
computers, two laptops and his camera.


However, courts have looked 
unfavorably on overzealous arrests for photography. In almost all cases — except in states with aggressive wiretapping and eavesdropping laws, 
such as Illinois — judges have rejected officers’ justifications for 
arrest. After Miller’s first arrest, he was charged with nine 
misdemeanors and acquitted on all but one, which was later reversed on 
appeal.

“The general consensus is the act 
of videotaping in itself is not illegal, so long as the person recording the officer’s actions remains at a reasonable distance and does not 
interfere with the officer or create a safety situation,” Roberts said.

Police officers also have no reasonable expectation to privacy while in public and performing a public service.

But photographers’ troubles these 
days don’t end with snapping pictures of the police. Amateur and 
professional photographers are being arrested or detained for simply 
taking pictures of government buildings or transit stations.

“In a way its almost as if the war on terrorism has morphed in to the 
war on photography,” Osterreicher said. “Usually the justification is 
security, but nobody’s ever found any link between photography and 
terrorism. No treasure trove of photographs of targets or anything.”