Photographer questioned by police under anti-terror laws...

[Tooks]

Even if your driving and they want to check if you have a licence?

Well, this can get pretty complicated pretty quickly and takes us away from photographers situations, but...

A Police Officer can 'stop' a vehicle at any time for any reason, but usually they will have had good reason. They can legally ask to see your driving licence, and ask you what you are doing etc, and that will usually be the end of it. If they ask you to step out of the car, and then search it, it's a 'stop AND search'. That being so, the same rules as to a pedestrian stop and search apply. If you were stopped for committing a traffic offence, then this should be made clear and they should tell you that they will be reporting you for whatever offence they suspect you of committing. At this point, you do have to give your name and address, otherwise you will probably be arrested until they can satisfy themselves as to who you are. Basically, you have fewer rights in a vehicle than on foot!

The general principle to remember is that stops and searches do not require you to identify yourself if you don't want to (in England & Wales) although most Police will ask for this information as a matter of course. Most people will give this information freely, and it will usually mean a quicker end result for all concerned and you can then resume whatever business it was you were going about.

Only if you are informed you are being reported for an offence (and they should state what it is) do you HAVE to provide personal information, including any offences that result from a stop and search.

I'm not a lawyer or Police Officer, this information is freely available on most UK Police Websites, it's worth taking a few minutes to get yourself up to speed as to what your rights and responsibilities are.

eg http://www.met.police.uk/stopandsearch/what_is.htm

I would add you should always be polite and courteous (as should the officer) as at the end of the day, most Police/PCSO's are only doing their job and have your best interests at heart.

 

[Mr Jones]

This is what happens when you you film the Gurkin in London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/11/snapshot-special-branch-terror-suspect
Apparently you are allowed to film the top but not the bottom. If security flagged you as suspicious, the police have the right (and quite rightly so) to question what you're doing.
I kinda side the plain clothes police who was only there doing his job but to be honest, the other 2 uniformed officer just jumped in straight waving the Section 44 flag.
I know the reporter was being abit of a PITA with his rights, which is within his rights to not reveal his name and details nor show the officers what he had filmed UNLESS the police offers have very strong evidence of the suspect being involved in terrorism / gathering intelligence in the name of.
It wasn't until the police officers bring up the obstruction of police officer issue, the reporter had no choice but to give up.

The next report by the guardian again
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/15/italian-student-police-arrest-filming
This I think is WAY OTT compared to the previous. Apparently being foreign and different in tone due to the language barrier amounts to being cocky by a PCSO, whom later flagged up something unrelated to the filming (that the student was cycling on the wrong direction earlier, in which she apologised) only to later be subject to an open arrest, with her pinned to the ground, jailed and forced to sign an £80 fine.

The first vid, I am semi on the fence but the second one is just stupid, more on the PCSO part. And with regards to the cocky tone, I felt it more from the PCSO than the student (who tbh, sounds like a drunk speaker - but I know of Europeans speaking like that as they are translating in their mind before they speak, much like how an English speak to a French, in French.)

 

[dekez]

Aye where I work we're much more concerned by users of P&S ones than SLR's.

This is what I would have though, if you were actually going to take pictures for the purpose of terrorism, you're hardly going to want to stand out with a massive camera and tripod etc.

 

[Tooks]

This is what happens when you you film the Gurkin in London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/11/snapshot-special-branch-terror-suspect
Apparently you are allowed to film the top but not the bottom. If security flagged you as suspicious, the police have the right (and quite rightly so) to question what you're doing.
I kinda side the plain clothes police who was only there doing his job but to be honest, the other 2 uniformed officer just jumped in straight waving the Section 44 flag.
I know the reporter was being abit of a PITA with his rights, which is within his rights to not reveal his name and details nor show the officers what he had filmed UNLESS the police offers have very strong evidence of the suspect being involved in terrorism / gathering intelligence in the name of.
It wasn't until the police officers bring up the obstruction of police officer issue, the reporter had no choice but to give up.

The next report by the guardian again
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/15/italian-student-police-arrest-filming
This I think is WAY OTT compared to the previous. Apparently being foreign and different in tone due to the language barrier amounts to being cocky by a PCSO, whom later flagged up something unrelated to the filming (that the student was cycling on the wrong direction earlier, in which she apologised) only to later be subject to an open arrest, with her pinned to the ground, jailed and forced to sign an £80 fine.

The first vid, I am semi on the fence but the second one is just stupid, more on the PCSO part. And with regards to the cocky tone, I felt it more from the PCSO than the student (who tbh, sounds like a drunk speaker - but I know of Europeans speaking like that as they are translating in their mind before they speak, much like how an English speak to a French, in French.)

A couple of interesting videos, thanks.

The PCSO in the second one was a disgrace and an embarassment. I wonder why certain officious PCSO's always seem to stand with their hands behind their stab vests like that, and why many of them seem to chew gum? They certainly don't get trained to do that.

If I was his section commander, I'd be having a word....

 

[GSXRMovistar]

Can you just refuse to provide them with any details at all? On a sort of "arrest me or go away" basis?

That is what myself and a few friends did when stopped on the London Southbank one evening. Told them that we would not provide name/details unless they provided the reason why they suspected us of committing a criminal offence.

It got rather silly with the PCSO throwing insults and then not wanting to provide his details. We told them that it was going nowhere and that if they have a problem to call in some arresting officers. At this point they told us to go on our way!

 

[diverse180]

I posted these in the youtube thread a while back, but thought I'd post them here just in case you haven't seen them.

(mods - feel free to remove them if need be)


3:30 to 3:36 and 5:05 to 5:08 are noteworthy quotes from the Chief.

This one is quite amusing

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

My brother is a freelance photographer, he has been stopped a fair few times under the anti terror act.