Stopped and Searched for taking Photos? Now it has happend!
It was yesterday when I read an interesting article on the BBC website (Innocent Photographer or Terrorist?) about the problems photographers are having in the UK. In few words: if you take photos in public places, you can be a terrorist! If you think that this description is extreme, please think back.
Today I was wandering around Woking, taking some photos and waiting Ram, when a cop stopped me. I have to clarify that the cop has been extremely kind. He told me that some CCTV signaled them that someone was taking photos and that because of the Terrorism Act (or something similar) he had been called. He asked me what I was doing. I simply explained that I enjoy taking photos of people. I showed him the photos in my camera and when he told me that he would have needed my details I told him that I had nothing against it. Simply nothing to hide.
Differently from the recent news about photographers stopped and searched, he did not ask me to delete any photo nor he asked me my camera or smart card. He probably knew he did not have the rights for it, but I decided to showed him what I had photographed because I know he was doing his job.
It was a nice chat, nothing more than that. He told me that the central Woking area is one under the Terrorism Surveillance (?) and I told him that if I were a terrorist I would not go around with a DSLR with a quite visible lens. He told me he knew… but he had to stop me.
So, after two years I have been stopped by the police for the first time. I was not doing anything wrong, just taking some photos (I did not like todays’ ones). I think that the world is going bananas if we have to fear everyone that carries a camera around.
I was told that if I was going to take more picture in the future I would be stopped again, because this is what they are required to do. I kindly told him I have mo problem with that. maybe I will keep the “Stop and Search” ticket copy he gave me.
We shake hands and I finally got my lunch.
PS: Thanks to Ram, I can let you download a very interesting PDF called: Photographers’ Rights in the UK!
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