It is now legal to take pictures in public in the UK
Less than a year after the United Kingdom enacted a new law that turned all photographers into terrorist suspects, officials are now backing off from that policy.
The Association of Chief Police Officers sent out a memo Friday night warning officers to stop harassing photographers under the guise of anti-terrorism laws, which we know has been happening at an alarming rate.
According to the Independent:
“Officers and community support officers are reminded that we should not be stopping and searching people for taking photos. Unnecessarily restricting photography, whether from the casual tourist or professional, is unacceptable.
“Everyone… has a right to take photographs and film in public places. Taking photographs… is not normally cause for suspicion and there are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place.”
He added: “We need to make sure that our officers and Police Community Support Officers [PCSOs] are not unnecessarily targeting photographers just because they are going about their business. The last thing in the world we want to do is give photographers a hard time or alienate the public. We need the public to help us.
“Photographers should be left alone to get on with what they are doing. If an officer is suspicious of them for some reason they can just go up to them and have a chat with them – use old-fashioned policing skills to be frank – rather than using these powers, which we don’t want to over-use at all.”
A photo competition for February!
Design-led? Actually, I think the Pentax K-01 means business
We’re All Bozos On This Bus--The Red Bus to Hell
25 time-lapse videos reeking of awesomeness
Worlds Fastest Camera
The New Sony NEX 7
Choosing your first dSLR
Photojojo iPhone Telephoto Lens review — AudioCast
Photo Accessories that Fail Security Checks
My week with Q
Studio equipment buying guide for beginners
VSCO Film Studio Review
Lessons in Lighting
The russellgraves.com Photo Minute - Truck Blinds
Cattle Country
Creative Photo Valentine Surprise
How to Use Multiple Lights for Dramatic Portraits
Making your own flash diffuser
LR4 free presets: Faded series
Using Sync for Video in Develop
A gift of flowers: unfold your senses
On Set of "Love & Robots" the Film
My Night with Ilford Galerie Gold Silk Fibre
FOTOMOTO - Why I Left











Silhouettes & Photo Contests
Cyan, not just another color
Our 26 best photo projects of 2011
Family Ties That Bind
Animal Group Portraits
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 3 of 3
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 2 Of 3
Always Dream Big
Behind the Scenes of a Documentary Film
GALLERY — Walt Disney Concert Hall — 5 Photos
2011: my favourite photos
Wildlife photography for the masses
The 110 page guide to post-processing
Santa Pictures + Marketing for your Business
Keep your tongue in your mouth!

























Comments
Sweet. Score 1 for free speech everywhere.
Thank you for the heads up on this kind of liking your work all the way, more than excited as ever..
Movers License
One tiny step in the right direction doesn’t make up for the huge leaps that have been taken into the wrong direction.
Don't have enough money to buy a car? Worry not, because that is real to receive the mortgage loans to resolve all the problems. Therefore get a auto loan to buy all you require.
I guess that it is not smart to waste valuable time creating the custom term paper. Lots of students come other way! They do not accomplish the custom research paper by their own efforts. They buy essay paper in the modern term papers writing service.
You should be really fanciful guy to write that great buy dissertation connecting with this good post . I would like to buy a essay or custom thesis about this. Thank you very much!
I think that this does not matter if utilize dissertation writing service or custom thesis writing services! Because only the quality of the thesis titles just about this good post has to be important.
That’s very important to compose the correctly performed philosophy essay paper or essay to have the A+ at the university.
prom dresses
evening dresses
cheap dresses
women dresses
white evening Dresses
Cocktail Dresses
Bridesmaid Dresses
Designer Dresses
red evening Dresses
women Dresses
special occasion dresses
Discount Prom Dresses
Evening Dresses
Women Dresses
Discount Prom Dresses
Informal Wedding Dress
Simple Wedding Dresses
Embroidered Wedding Dress
No, naturally not. And yet it is still the right direction, which could lead to more. I’d also hardly call it a tiny step.
Wonderful news. I have a sneaky suspition that it won’t stop a vast majority of Police officers though. But still I’m very happy after the madness of ‘Im a Photographer, Not a Terrorist’
wait… didnt NY do a similar thing? Yet NY cops are still using it to bust photographers’ balls.
In comparison to the NYPD, at least the bobbies actually do have a law to enforce. And for all the hoopla, that law still exists, all that’s changed is that there is now a memo from headquarters clarifying the circumstances in which a photographer should be questioned.
But during the course of the last year there have been numerous incidents of PCSO’s and Bobbies going absolutely anal on photogs with no or very little said from the higer up’s (“isolated incident – it won’t happen again” they say). but it’s only when two incidents happen to BBC photogs then the shit hits the fan and they go in to damage control mode.
Step in the right direction absolutely but as LWB said also, NYPD put out an Ops Order to the same effect but very little has changed.
First off, good to see a glimmer of hope.
“alienate the public” – check
Sorry, too late for that, especially when people like myself are putting off travel to the U.K. for this very reason.
Came to post that this already happened with the memo to NYPD officers, beaten to the point twice over.
It was a few weeks before the next major incident in NYPD harrassing photographers after the memo right? What’s the odds for the nanny state doing it in a even fortnight?
I think I’m going to print out that memo and carry that around with me.
I agree. This didn’t work for NYPD and I don’t see this message changing things in the UK. And the only reason this was released at all was the two BBC photogs getting harassed in the space of a week.
Never piss off a man who buys paper by the tractor trailer load and ink by the barrel. Or the electronic equivalent thereof.
It's always been legal to take pictures in public, I don't get it.
Post new comment