Posts about Photographers Rights

Drew reports that he was stopped 9 12 times by law enforcement. It should come as no surprise that the worst offender was US Park Police, who stopped him 6 9 times.

The video shows Peter Tucker, the other reporter, insisting this is a public meeting and he's doing nothing but recording it; the officer is telling him he has to agree to stop reporting or be arrested.

Police are supposed to protect the public, not act as the private security force for people in power.

What is going through these officers' heads? Say you're an officer who gets a call from someone running a meeting objecting to a reporter there. You show up and see for yourself that the reporter is just sitting quietly recording or taking notes, not disrupting the meeting. What would make you think that your appropriate course of action is to get rid of that person just because the chair asked?

This isn't an isolated incident. It relates to three troubling police-related subjects: The Park Police becoming very disrespectful toward individual liberty, the Metropolitan Police Department's escorts of celebrities, and numerous stories of officers arresting or assaulting people for legally videotaping events.

The Park Police's troubling behavior. The National Park Service is a paradoxical agency. It operates parks but frequently seems to not want anyone to enjoy those parks, or to be able to travel easily to and from them except by the least environmentally friendly means. It operates the venue that hosts the largest numbers of protests (the Mall), yet its police seem constantly averse to smaller and less intrusive First Amendment behaviors.

The Park Police chose to turn some silent and respectful dancing at the Jefferson Memorial into a major issue, and again overreacted to the subsequent dancing protest. They told an ABC7 news crew they couldn't report from the Mall, which is entirely false. They even shut down all the food trucks at Farragut Square despite them operating completely legally.

MPD escorts. Today the DC Council also held a hearing on news that MPD gave Charlie Sheen a high-speed escorts, with sirens and lights, in contravention of policy, and further that they do this quite often. Our police force is not supposed to be making life easier for celebrities, or helping them reach events quickly and get through traffic.

Its mission is keeping the public safe. That public does include celebrities, but as witnesses argued at the hearing, there was no reason to believe the Sheen escort was necessary for public safety. It seems to simply involve doing the bidding of famous or important people. That isn't far from the mindset that someone like Reed could simply ask the police to get rid of a pesky journalist and that the police would comply.

Nationwide harassment of photographers and videographers. Carlos Miller has documented many troubling cases of police blocking or even arresting people who try to take pictures or video of police activity or other public buildings and objects. Rochester, NY police arrested a women for videotaping from her own front yard. Boston police arrested a man for videotaping in a park.

Los Angeles police kept a teen in prison for 7 months after he videotaped them arresting an unrelated person; they are continuing to harass him despite him being uninvolved in the original crime.

Albuquerque police took away a reporter's camera and deleted footage of arrests at a nightclub; Miami police pulled a gun on a citizen taking video of a police shooting.

It's not just about people actually taping police activity. People have recently been arrested or detained for photographing a TSA checkpoint in Denver, a whale in Florida, and a courthouse in Dayton.

In this region, we've had problems with officers harassing people for photographing USDOT's historic gas pumps, Union Station, and the Baltimore light rail.

Certainly, this is a minority of cases. People probably photograph federal buildings, whales, transit, arrests by police and more all the time without being harassed. People videotape on the Mall constantly and the Park Police doesn't bother them. And for all we know, there have been times when the chair of a meeting asks officers to remove a reporter and the officers properly refuse, saying he or she is breaking no law.

But when there are so many incidents, we can say there's a pattern. There seem to be far more incidents with the Park Police than with other police forces. Police look for patterns of behavior to solve crimes. There's a pattern of behavior from the Park Police having trouble understanding or following the Constitution.

We hear many calls for Congress to intervene in District affairs, often on completely internal matters from those unhappy with an outcome. The Park Police, though, is a federal police force. Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress should be very concerned about their officers so blatantly disregarding the First Amendment. And DC officials should take strong action to correct this kind of behavior from the DC Taxi Commission.

Update: Reed says that Tucker insisted on placing his microphone in certain locations to get a better recording, and claims she was entitled to bar the practice or even to refuse recording entirely.

He let me know that he thought it was okay, but his supervisor was unsure about Metro's policy regarding photographs. I mentioned that I was familiar with the policy (PDF), that as long as you weren't using a tripod it was OK. He said that sounded familiar but it might be better for me to wait until his supervisor left.

He pointed to the card and asked to see the blog, which I brought up on the smartphone. I described Greater Greater Washington as a blog that discusses improving the Metro system. He then asked why we didn't come to the front-line employees to discuss potential improvements. I mentioned that we get support from the press office and board members, as well as occasional meetings with the General Manager. He mentioned that the front-line employees were prohibited to talk to the media anyway.

After some time of waiting outside the faregates with the supervisor still waiting, I decided to show them the policy so it was clear I am allowed to take photos. After I read all that, the supervisor seemed confused. I know all that, he said; he was just confused why I didn't just come in through the faregates and take some pictures. After all, paying customers take pictures all the time and they don't get stopped.

So, SmarTrip card in hand, I paid $1.60 for the privilege of taking photos inside the station. I re-learned the lesson, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Next up is David Ball, President of USRC. He argues that there isn't room in the garage to accommodate private parking, intercity buses, and tour buses, all of whom would like to use the parking area. Bryan Chambers of Jones Lang LaSalle, which operates the retail areas, gives a long litany of ways Union Station cooperates with the city, participates in local merchant's associations, etc.

Daniel Levy of Ashkenazy Acquisition, which leases the building and subleases to Jones Lang LaSalle and other merchants, talks a little bit about the future plans for the station, including the new Amtrak concourse, expanded auto area for buses, and Columbus Circle reconfiguration. He also complains about a proposed tax (Possessed Reinterest Tax? Assessed Interest Tax?) from the District of Columbia that would "undo decades of revitalization" and create a "downward spiral."

Norton asks the three Union Station reps to respond to the photo issue. Ball: Surprised there isn't a standard policy and thinks it should be a very simple matter to devise one. There was some confusion after 9/11 but they should be able to work it out. Levy: Never been formally presented to him. His legal opinion is that the federal government conveyed a leasehold interest to USRC, which conveyed it to Ashkenazy. Norton is absolutely incredulous.

Chambers: Has been taking steps to fix the problem and has redrafted the standard to make it more clear that photography is permitted. Norton goes back to Levy, since he is the only lawyer, and argues that Levy or another lawyer should be involved with drafting the new policy. She also admonishes Levy to familiarize himself with "an unbroken line of court cases" in favor of photographer's rights on public property even when that property is leased to private entities.

Some discussion about the redevelopment follows. Management is considering replacing the now-closed possibly to-be-closed movie theater with a walkway to connect to the platforms; losing some retail rental revenue would be offset by greater foot traffic in the food court area.

Transportation ranking member John Mica (R-FL) is also attending the hearing. He insists that the future new Amtrak concourse should connect to the future bus concourse, and suggests that the bike station should fit in better with the building's architecture. He also complains about panhandling, having been panhandled four times while eating lunch waiting for a train. Mica jokes that the security guards seem too preoccupied with photographers to address panhandling. The now more apparently stupid Mr. Levy suggests perhaps if it's considered public property for photographers, then it's public for panhandlers too. Norton reminds them that the law isn't that simplistic.

Chambers jumps in, again with a voice of reason to Levy's unhinged behavior, admitting there's a problem and arguing that they lack arresting power. Mica suggests they hire Officer Thompson who's about to retire from the Capitol Hill Club nearby. At this point, we might be veering into absurd levels of Congressional micromanagement.

Norton, coming back to photography, points out that these guards who can't solve panhandling because they can't make arrests seem very willing to threaten photographers with arrest. She asks them to produce, within 30 days, a plan for retraining every security guard.

Next they argue about something concerning the movie theater lease, which isn't especially relevant to me other than the entertainment value of Levy continuing to piss off Congresswoman Norton every time he opens his mouth. It's good to see Norton leaning on these guys, especially for the terrible and illegal photography policy.

Will her browbeating solve the problem? Will they really send her a plan for retraining security guards? Will they really retrain them, and will guards stop harassing photographers? We'll be watching.