Best Laid Plans

It's not often I get the chance to travel into London with my full photography kit, tripod 'n all. On New Year's Day, I was rostered to work an early shift. As there's no public transport, I have no choice but to drive into the city centre - so I thought I'd make the most of the situation by bringing in my kit and heading down to the river after work.

As always, real work got the better of my plans, and I ended up dealing with three prisoners in custody, out of a huge number that were arrested the night before. Instead of finishing at 4pm, I walked out of my station at 11pm - utterly exhausted and in no mood at all for photography.

New Year? Bah, humbug!

The End of Section 44

As a serving police officer, I am duty bound to abstain from politics in public. This blog is about photography - and occasionally my job - but some things I can't help but offer a little comment on.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act drew a great deal of criticism - much of it perfectly justified - because it was disproportionately used to target photographers in public. There have been numerous horror stories of security guards, PCSOs and Police Officers all getting things horribly wrong - deleting photos, confiscating cameras, moving people on - all over the country.

I argued a while back that we needed to refine our use of s44 - now its use has been suspended altogether. Partly, this is due to an ECHR ruling stating that it is against a person's human rights to be stopped & searched when no real grounds exist for doing so. Personally, I think it is a great deal more to do with the active campaign of http://photographernotaterrorist.org/

s44 was never intended to become a tool for harassing photographers, but that's ultimately what it became associated with, and now we've paid the price. I don't mourn its passing. However, the next - and much harder - battle will be in convincing average Joe Public that not every photographer is a paedophile.

Can we expect to see "Photographer Not A Paedophile" T-Shirts cropping up in the near future?

20,000 Fake Camera Cases Seized in Raid

Trading Standards have raided an address in Manchester and retrieved hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of fake camera equipment.

As I so often say, buyer beware...

http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/8244896.20_000_fake_camera_cases_seized_in_Bowdon_raid/

Photographer - Not a Terrorist

I am, by virtue of my occupation, expressly forbidden from engaging publicly in politics - so I don't seek to use my blog to forward any personal political agenda. Photography is my concern, and this is what this space is for. However, it is impossible to to ignore the Photography vs s44 Terrorism Act debate that is currently raging.

On January 23rd, there is to be a protest, most likely in Piccadilly Circus or Trafalgar Square. It is organised by Photographer Not a Terrorist. This is a direct result of photographers' anger at recent stop & search tactics under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act.

Since the organisation was founded, there have been considerable policy changes instituted by the new Commissioner, and its use by the Metropolitan Police has been scaled back enormously. I expect the recent ECHR judgment, thought not changing any UK law, will also contribute to it being cut back.

s44 was never intended to be an indiscriminate stop-all power or a return to the days of the 'sus' laws. It *does* remain important, because it allows officers to take action in circumstances where existing powers under s1 PACE or s43 TACT would not give rise to grounds or objects for a search. We know that hostile reconnaissance does go on - I've seen it for myself - but we're limited in what we can release to the general public. On the other hand, I don't believe that it should be used indiscriminately against photographers because of the risk of angering the public. I was arguing for a balance in the use of s44 nearly three years ago. This is now current force policy, I'm pleased to say.

As an aside, it may also be worth pointing out that the incidents pointed out at the top of the Photographer Not a Terrorist web page all occurred within the City of London jurisdiction - not the ground covered by the Metropolitan Police. While we're by no means blameless in the current poor relationship with photographers, I do think we're taking the lead over other forces.