Police and snappers face flash point

Jan 2 2008 by Rhodri Clark, Western Mail

PHOTOGRAPHERS are being wrongly prevented from taking pictures in public places by police who do not understand the law, a trade body said yesterday.

The Bureau of Freelance Photographers (BFP) reports an increase in reports of police acting outside their powers in the past 12 months – and expects a further rise in 2008.

One man who was recently interrogated by five North Wales police officers for taking a photo said yesterday that photographers had greater freedom in police states, such as Cuba, than in Wales.

The BFP’s claim comes nine months after the Vale of Glamorgan council tried to ban photography in all parks.

The move sparked outrage among photographers, and 55,000 people signed a Downing Street petition on the subject.

Stewart Gibson, of the BFP, said one of the most recent cases of police intervention involved a member of a Suffolk photographic society who was told he needed a “licence” to take pictures of town centre Christmas lights being switched on.

“We are getting reports coming in all the time, not just from our members but from various sources,” he said. “We’re expecting these cases to keep on going up.”

He said concerns about terrorism and paedophiles may be behind the problem.

“Time and time again people are being told, ‘You cannot take pictures here’,” Mr Gibson said. “They don’t seem to worry too much about tourists but anyone with serious equipment seems to be a target.

“It seems now that police have all sorts of powers to stop people doing things, but officers often don’t understand what they can do and can’t do.

“There seems to be a feeling that people have some right of privacy in law that means they can’t have their picture taken. They don’t. Basically photographers can photograph what can be seen. If you can see me standing at a bus stop you can photograph me. Even when pictures are taken of people on private property – that’s not a matter for the police.”

Terry Mills, an amateur photographer for more than 40 years, said yesterday he was baffled by the logic of police who stopped him in Colwyn Bay and threatened to confiscate his camera.

He had photographed a child eagerly waiting for pictures to emerge from a photo booth in a shopping centre. His photo did not show the child’s face and was meant as a humorous snapshot.

He agreed to delete the picture when accosted by a man accompanying the child, but half an hour later he was stopped by two police officers.

“They had looked at CCTV footage and put out an All Points Bulletin for me to be stopped,” he said. One officer looked through the other photos he had taken that afternoon of various subjects. He refused to accompany her to a police station.

“A police car pulled up onto the pavement and another three police arrived,” said Mr Mills, 60, of Pwllheli. “I had five now, interrogating me.

“They asked me did I live alone, and had I been in trouble with the police before.

“One officer, a WPC, was hostile. She saw a picture I had taken of a mother leading two toddlers at the seafront and asked me where the delete button was. She said taking pictures of other people’s children was an offence.”

After 30 minutes of questioning he was allowed to continue. The incident will lie on record for 12 months.

“Two days later, I was at the launch of the North Wales Photographic Association’s exhibition. I got an award for a picture of two girls standing in a doorway, but that was taken in Cuba – which is a police state,” said Mr Mills.

“If we stop taking pictures of kids, how much is going to be lost to history?”

He had sent the BBC a photo of a group of children taking part in Criccieth in Bloom, but BBC policy prevented the photo being used on its website.

“Those kids were really proud of what they’d done, and yet they’re denied any recognition,” he said.

Last year Vale of Glamorgan council officers proposed to ban the use of cameras in all parks without the authority’s written permission. The plan would have stopped parents taking photographs of their children in playgrounds. Councillors rejected it as unworkable.