The Right To Take Pictures

Had it not been for the wonderful, informed and insightful response to my posting on the Tawny Owls and my wish to follow up on that, I would have been posting on this issue yesterday. As the first news story that I found on the BBC news website was this issue of a BBC News Photographer who was stopped from taking pictures.

As I recounted, when watching the Owls I had probably been seen by the police, and they had started to look for me. As they saw the Fox and possibly assumed that was the movement they saw, I did not suffer the interference that can happen. While I have recounted a couple of the instances where I have been stopped by the police while out watching wildlife, I get stopped on a depressingly regular basis.

While I realise that anyone roaming about in unusual places and at strange times could be suspicious and needs to be checked, it has reached the stage were I feel as though I am living in a police state akin to Eastern Europe of twenty years ago. In fact I was considering posting on this very issue for the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

There is crime and criminal behaviour that the police need to prevent and detect crime, but police are abusing their powers under the anti terrorist act. If they have no other reasonable excuse they will cite section 44 and stop you anyway. Often the rational for the police stopping me is simply that I am on foot and carrying photographic equipment. It seems that if I had been in a car I would not have been harassed

However, the issue goes far wider than my inconveniences. While I realise that the terrorist threat is real, there is no sense in stopping and harrying people who are going about their lawful business. The most disturbing aspect of the way the government have reacted to the terrorist threat is the way the very freedoms the terrorists want to deprive us of, the government has taken away.

There is a culture that has developed in the police that treats the general public as, if not the enemy, something to be controlled. In interviews with senior police and politicians about policing issues, the answers that the authorities give create images in my minds eye of the footage we see of places like North Korea.

There is a lack of logic behind the police actions in stopping people from taking photographs. As in the press reports of terrorist trials, often one of the supporting aspects of the evidence is the film and photographs of the intended target. Therefore by stopping people from taking pictures the police will reduce the evidence base that can be used to convict these thugs.

Fortunately we don't yet live in a police state. No matter how much the police may think this would solve crime, it did not stop crime in Eastern Europe where there were police states. Also the more the police alienate themselves with the public, the less support and help the police will get. Just yesterday something happened that illustrates this.

My better half and I had been able to spend the day together. As part of this we went into Consett to do a little shopping. I really know how to treat a girl! Just as we were getting ready to get the bus back, I wanted to have a smoke. I was standing around outside the covered shopping market while my better half went back into a shop we had previously been in. While I was waiting I witnessed a child of about 11 or 12 dealing drugs. With the first transaction I was not totally sure that I had really seen what I knew I had seen. But the second one was blatant and clear.

I did consider calling the police but as I was concerned for my safety and that of my GF, I did not. Could I or should I have called the police latter? I don't know, I did not call or inform the police. I can justify this in my own mind as even if I had informed the police latter it was likely that I would have been identified by the dealers as the likely informant.

As much as I detest drugs and the harm they cause, I feel so dissatisfied with the police that I don't want to have contact with them if I can avoid it. It is the way the police are abusing their powers that is creating this situation, and in the past I would have considered it my civic duty to help prevent crime.

A link to the BBC Story