My family is currently undergoing terrorism, including, but not limited to, threats, harrassment, physical assault, battery, and now, photography of my small children. When the police were called on this, they told me anyone has the right to take pictures of anything, children or not; private property, or not. As a former teacher, it was my understanding that there are strict rules with the photography of children. Can anyone help me understand what the legalities are?
jen
Yikes!
Generally speaking, in the United States the laws I know of that protect against the photography of children have more to do with the commercial use of those photographs. Taking them provided the photographer is on public land (ie. standing on a sidewalk, photographing into a private yard), would not be illegal in itself, just the usage might be. Tho certainly its bad form, and just icky (to use the technical term).
I am not a lawyer, and don't really know much about privacy issues. I hope that you are pursuing some manner of restraining order, and/or pressing charges for the other more serious offenses.
I hope it all resolves and that your children are safe.
Tell us the whole story so that we can reply with informed ideas.
Along with the others, I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it is legal to photograph private property from public property. The caveat is that this can not be done if there is a reasonable sense of privacy--for example telephoto through a 2nd story window or over what is correctly termed a "privacy fence."
I think if you are experiencing threats, harrassment, physical assault, and battery then you have a very serious problem which needs to involve LOTS of documentation, police involvement, civil involvement (find a good lawyer), and restraining orders. If you have a straining orders against said individual(s) then it would be very difficult for them to photograph your children.
Of course this would only apply in the US as I know even less about the law outside of my country, but you need to be talking to a lawyer (both civil and a district attorney) about this and not a photography forum.
edit: sorry, "reasonable sense of privacy" should read "reasonable EXPECTATION of privacy"
Own a baseball bat? Lawyers and police are only good after the fact.
Seems to me the photography part of your problems is the least of your concerns.
So the police said its OK to take pictures? And what did they say about the "threats, harrassment, physical assault, battery"??? All good too? Usually, those who commit such acts go to jail in a hurry. At least where I live... So what happened with those (definite) offenses? I'm really missing something in your story here.
Document everything and photograph them. And get a good lawyer - the internet is a lousy place for legal advice.
A lawyer should be able to get a judge to issue an injunction to stop the harrasement as long as you can prove there is harrasement.
Remember that there are as many styles of lawyers as there are types of people. If you get a "wishy washy" answer from your family attorney, consider talking to a defense lawyer who was a former prosecutor. It doesn't have to be a "top guy", someone who just started is fine. When you need an adversarial lawyer be sure to hire one.
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