New campaign to "report odd photographers" to the police

[tim atherton]

The Metropolitan Police (London, UK) has launched a new counter terrorism campaign with posters and ads going up to encourage people to report "odd" photographers (as well as people acting suspiciously in their homes and suspicious people using cellphones...hmm):

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS EVERY DAY. WHAT IF ONE OF THEM SEEMS ODD

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras. If you see someone doing that we need to know. Let experienced Officers decide what action to take.

I think "odd" probably covers about 98% of this list... :-)

more here (if the neo-cons get too wild and off topic, we can move this to the lounge, but this is of importance to anyone working in or travelling to the UK for photography...)

http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/2008/...sons-from.html

[cotdt]

big brother will take care of you

[domenico Foschi]

Ignorance and fear are a dangerous combination for freedom.
ALL photographers will look ODD because they will be looking for angles and point the camera right in your face,or doing it very covertly not to distract the scene.
I sure hope this won't spill over here in the US as well.
Mhmm.. I am actually surprised that it didn't start here first.

[Charles Carstensen]

But ossifer, I only had two shots.

[ic-racer]

Ignorance and fear are a dangerous combination for freedom.
ALL photographers will look ODD because they will be looking for angles and point the camera right in your face,or doing it very covertly not to distract the scene.
I sure hope this won't spill over here in the US as well.
Mhmm.. I am actually surprised that it didn't start here first.

When I went to get auto plates in the Midwest USA, there was a poster in the bureau depicting suspicious activities that need to be reported. One suspicious activity depicted was that of a person taking a picture of a public structure.

[davidb]

I was questioned by the FBI and local PD last week for taking a picture of the local bus station.

Read about it here...

It wasn't fun but it did seem rather harmless.

[Jeff Conrad]

Domenico, we actually may have been first.

The following sign has been in the Union Square parking garage in San Francisco for several years (and was still there six months or so ago):

NOTICE

DUE TO THE LEVEL OF ALERT THROUGHOUT OUR NATION REGARDING TERRORIST
ACTIVITY, PICTURE TAKING IS PROHIBITED IN ALL AREAS OF THIS PARKING
FACILITY. IF AT ANY TIME YOU SHOULD SEE A PERSON OR PERSONS TAKING
PICTURES PLEASE REPORT THIS IMMEDIATELY TO THE SECURITY OR MANAGEMENT
PERSONNEL. WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION IN THIS MATTER.

THE MANAGEMENT
UNION SQUARE GARAGE

THANK YOU, UNION SQUARE MANAGEMENT

It's always refreshing to find signage that's unencumbered by principles of typography or English composition. Conspicuously absent, however, is a citation of the authority to prohibit photography. I wonder why ...

I've never had an overpowering desire to photograph the Union Square Garage (although, given a choice, I'd just as soon photograph Level 3 of the parking structure as I would the square itself. One person's opinion ...)

[John Kasaian]

When Baden-Powell was sketching enemy fortifications he posed as a naturalist drawing butterflies in the field, with the intelligence obscured in the elaborate details of the drawings.

With so many camera cell phones around which cannot only capture images but transmit them to other locations at speed, the sketch pad and the minox (much less something along the lines of an 8x10 'dorff) are hardly the front line tools of intelligence gatherers any more---at least the ones who are playing for keeps. The time it takes to unload a camera and soup the film compromises the timeliness of the product and the possession of the film is incriminating evidence for any operative.

The warnings and the hassles like those mentioned here are social constructs and IMHO have little to do with fighting terrorists.

[cyrus]

Hate to break it to you davidb but your name is now in a database, along with mine and god knows who else, and god knows what use is made of this list or how it could be used in the future since you don't have the right to know any of this.

''This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." -Plato, 565 BC

[Maretzo]

Basic rule: avoid being suspiciously hidden under a dark cloth: use a transparent one.