Police in Illinois respond to complaint about photographer and take his side


Despite how often people accuse me of being “anti-cop”, I do like to point out when police officers actually protect our Constitutional rights to take pictures. I just wish it would happen more often.

Tom Chamberlain tells us how he recently came across a repairman working on one of those annoying red light cameras at a traffic intersection in Gurnee, Illinois.

Wanting to take pictures of the inside of the control box, he pulled over and started snapping photos without getting in the guy’s way.

Chamberlain figured that since the Redflex cameras are tax-funded and are on public land – not to mention that they take pictures of hundreds of unsuspecting citizens a day – then surely nobody would mind him taking a few photos of the inside of the control box.

But Chamberlain was wrong.

The repairman told him he was not allowed to take photos.

Chamberlain continued taking photos.

The repairman called police.

Chamberlain continued taking photos.

Police arrived on the scene and told the repairman that Chamberlain had the right to take photos.

Chamberlain continued taking photos.

Says Chamberlain: “I was lucky the Gurnee police were very professional and protected my rights to take pictures on public property.”

Check out the sequence of events in the photos below. They speak for themselves so they don’t even need captions.

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Comments

Anonymous
Anonymous

The people that accuse you (or most anyone else) of being anti-cop don’t care how many positive stories you run. To them, saying one negative thing ever forever brands you as hating all cops.

Of course, they’re probably the bad cops/their supporters in question.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Carlos
nice to see more cops doing the RIGHT thing
Thanks for the storie ill pass it along to my cop hating friends and see what they think of a cop doing right

Anonymous
Anonymous

Perhaps we should let the Chief of the Gurnee Police know what a good job his officer did. I wrote to Chief Robert Jones at policechief@police.gurnee.il.us to let him know.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Yay for the Gurnee Police. Really curious what the repairman’s reasoning was.

Of course, it sucks when we have to celebrate the police for simply upholding the law.

Everyone here knows this photog could have easily been harassed, assaulted, tased and arrested…

Anonymous
Anonymous

Good for the Gurnee PD, good for Chamberlain for politely standing his ground, and good for you for highlighting this.

Anonymous
Anonymous

At least we know that the cops in Gurnee, Illinois agree with Carlos that photography is not a crime.

Anonymous
Anonymous

outstanding!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Having lived in Gurnee for several years, I always found the police to be exceedingly professional. Given that gang activity was slowly moving in from neighboring communities, it’s nice to see they’re still equally professional.

They knew the law, even some relatively obscure sections, like what differentiates a model rocket (legal) from fireworks (illegal). And they were not afraid to tell people, “It’s legal. Now, go stuff it.”

Anonymous
Anonymous

Good to see that some LEOs are getting the message. It’s so easy to just report the bad news b/c it is more exciting to rail against, but I think it’s laudable that Carlos is giving props when they’re due.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Tom forgot to mention that he is an elected board member for the village of Gurnee.

Anonymous
Anonymous

haha the photos realyl do tell the story

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