Dec
12.
That’s right folks.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this blog, but tonight’s happening was internet-worthy.
I drove out to the station to sell a guitar on Craigslist. After selling my precious classical, I decided the train station looked pretty awesome in the rain. I whipped out my 5dMkII and walked around for about 10 minutes. I took some cool photos of a crummy shack-like-thing and power tower next to the station, and then some of the fence next to the parking lot. When I was taking a picture of the barbed wire fence, I heard someone shout “TURN AROUND SLOWLY!”
I said “excuse me?” confusedly, and then slowly turned around. To my surprise, two police officers were staring at me. They asked what I was “suspiciously photographing industrial stuff for…”
I replied with something along the lines of “What?” and then they proceeded to collect my IDs and vehicle information (I was parked in another lot entirely). They also asked for my social security number, and took photographs of me, to which I said “is this really necessary??” and was told “absolutely.” They agreed there was nothing illegal about my activity, but said they needed to make a “full report of the incident.”
After about 30 minutes, they realized I wasn’t some sort of strange train terrorist, but were still asking me questions. A third officer and third and fourth squad car then arrived. The fourth went to deal with a robbery that was happening literally a block away; you know, a real crime.
About 30 minutes later, we had all gotten chummy and were talking about stuff like my future career ambitions, why Santa Cruz picked a Banana Slug as their mascot over the Sea Lion, and how one of the officers wanted to buy a nice DSLR for his daughter. The officer that instigated these shenanigans told me he had a nice Nikon D90 that he likes to play with often.
Eventually, they copied the entire contents of my CF card to their police laptop and two flash drives, though the redundancy was due to technical issues (their IT admin disabled their right click feature, making the process difficult on their laptop). I told them they could have a copy of the photos as long as they didn’t sell any of them. They smiled and promised not to.
Aside from this being a terribly obnoxious waste of time, it was an interesting experience, and I’m now very likely on some sort of terrorist watch list for being a suspicious photographer… Yippie.
I guess they were doing their jobs, but I think this was the dumbest waste of my tax money and time I’ve encountered yet. Hopefully nothing even more stupid will come out of this.
Without further adieu, here are a couple of pictures I snapped in the 10 minutes I walked around before being rudely interrupted. They aren’t that great, considering I had just gotten my camera out and was just playing around before framing neat stuff. It was dark when this ordeal was over, so I didn’t snap any more after the waste of time.
Thanks for reading. As always, prints of all photos on this blog can be purchased. Simply send me an email for a quote.
I’m only a click away: imagine@dulcetstudios.com
Cheers,
Andrew
Tags: 5dmkii, Police
I’m sorry this happened, but I’m glad you made a record of it here. You’ll notice they couldn’t charge you with anything, because you didn’t break any law. Therefore, it is entirely legal to photograph anything you want. It’s your First Amendment Right, and although the locals have be mandated to harass people for exercising this Constitutional right — it’s still your right…for now anyway. If we stop exercising this right, they will most certainly take it away. My recommendation, complain. Make noise. Write your state and federal congressman, the governor and the local Sheriff, not the chief of police, but the county sheriff. Let them know of this outrage, and most importantly, continue to take pictures, and this is a mandate for all those who call themselves free. Prove it, take pictures in public of trains, buildings, cops, people, everything. If you are detained, so be it. Because the next step is to outlaw cameras and public photography altogether. Can you imagine being charged with a Federal crime for having a camera? It’s the next logical conclusion. However, the Federal government does not have enough jail space at the present time to arrest us all. So if everyone with a camera, steps out of their houses and starts snapping pictures, it will put an end to this tyranny for good.
If this unfortunate incident of intimidation and harassment by the stasi ever happens again please take a look at the following:
Keep this with you when you are taking photos:
http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm
Understand that you have the right to ask the following questions of “law” enforcement:
“Am I under arrest?”
“Am I being detained”
“Am I free to go?”
“What exactly is your reasonable suspicion or probable cause?”
“I do not consent to any searches.”
“I am exercising my right to remain silent.”
“What law requires me to provide identification to you?”
Best wishes
did you really hand over your social security number? if so, you shouldn’t have. that’s an absolute no, no. you don’t want anybody having that number. plus, you only need to provide your name. however, some states/local ordinances require a valid ID
I asked if my SSN was necessary, and was told “absolutely” just as I was when I asked about my photo being taken.
Guess what. Cops are allowed to lie. Just because they said they needed to give your SSN, or anything, was incorrect. In California, They cannot force you to identify yourself, or give away even copies of your data. If you had declined, the worst that would have happened would have been an unlawful seize. With the detainment, even though you already gave up your right to privacy, you should still talk to a lawyer about false imprisonment. If they know you have done nothing, there isn’t a 30 minute grace period, or even 1.
They were not getting chummy with you. They were trying to get you to incriminate yourself in some crime. They were not doing their jobs by wasting your time and violating your rights. Don’t mean to get preachy.
Yeah, please leave trail of
any legal developments.
If you don’t protest they’ll
keep doing it.
Also, a formal letter to City Hall
might help. Hell, CC it to a local politician.
Citizens of your town have a right to know.
“Can you please let me know why officers XX detained and interrogated me for innocently taking pictures on this date.”
They sort of have to get back to
you.
I hope the cops at least sent you flowers afterward.
I wrote the director of Ca. State parks and cc’d to Mark Stone of the coastal commision of my incident just after Thanksgiving:
My Name is Howard “Boots” McGhee. I need to bring attention to you both as to what is actually happening within our State Parks and Beaches.
On the weekend of the past Thanksgiving, my niece form Arizona asked me to photograph their family Christmas card. I picked the late afternoon for perfect lighting and around 4pm we went down to Seacliff State Beach, a mile from the house I’ve lived in for 31 years.
I photographed my niece’s family of four under the pier and walked up to walk on the pier. A ranger was talking to another family, a man, his wife and their 2 daughters. They were shooting their Christmas card also. As I walked past he motions me to listen to his interpretation of commercial photography within the state park. We both told him that it was a family Christmas card shoot and that we didn’t or shouldn’t need the permit the ranger said we needed. I thought that was it and then he asked us for our IDs. The other man gave him his license and because I came with my niece in their car, I didn’t have my wallet with me. He asked my name and address, I told him and he proceeded to run our names for what I believe was outstanding warrants. After our names came back clean, he said we could go but gave us a “verbal warning”.
A few days later, after telling my story to friends, I wrote a letter to the Santa Cruz Sentinel on Dec. 2nd. A reporter contacted me and wanted to find out more information and do a more in depth story on it and ran that story on the 3rd. A reporter then contacted me from KPIX TV in SF. And after that, a reporter interviewed me from KGO TV in SF. The following Friday our local radio station here in Santa Cruz asked me to come on for the “Saturday Special” which I appeared on Dec. 5th.
Because of the publicity, many photographers and personal friends have contacted me to share similar experiences with state park rangers hassling them even though they were not shooting commercially. It extends to people simply enjoying themselves on the beach without a camera.
Then a man contacted me and gave me all the info on the law, our rights and what is obviously authority overstepping their bounds.
I’ve learned about TItle 14ccr4316 and what constitutes personal and commercial photography. In his correspondence with me, he linked me to a photography forum where they were talking of my encounter and shared theirs.
Please take the time to investigate these instances and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT PLEASE.
Thank you for your time in this manner.
Howard McGhee
No response as of yet
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/letters/ci_13906024
and
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_13915205
Nice photos – but never talk to the police. That’s your right.
You don’t have to explain your perfectly legal activities to them.
And the next time you photograph a “terrorist target” bring a pocket camera with video capability. With a neck strap. Throw it around your neck, and switch it on at the first sign of trouble with insecurity guards or police.
Think of it as insurance.
You would be well within your rights to decline their requests.
However: Never argue with people who have guns. (and be sure the pocket camera suggested by #10 has audio)