Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I have an address in the South Bronx I need you to take some pictures in - to test your theory.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Nope, not quite. You are now changing your line from your original. This was not a discussion of about interfering with a police officer. It was a discussion regarding taking photographs of a police officer. You can be arrested for that, there are examples available. As I wrote earlier, getting convicted is a bit more difficult. One needs to separate the act of being arrested from being convicted in a court of law.

One local law enforcement agency is very leery of people with cameras, and for good, in their opinion, cause.
Ref. article. https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-peters-the-scottsdale-cop-involved-in-six-justifiable-homicides

The situation with this, but not mentioned in the article, was a neighbor videotaped the entire incident. It was this videotape that ended Peter's career with SPD. Since then, however, SPD had an apparent wariness of and vengeance against anyone photographing their officers doing anything. I've had several confrontations while doing just that, in most cases from a distance of 50 feet or more. In one particular confrontation, the officer already had his handcuffs at the ready.

The good thing about that situation was that, although SPD was the first to respond to the incident, it was not within their jurisdiction. It was within the Tempe city limits. While in the process of this 'no photos' discussion, a Tempe PD officer showed up. Thankfully, it was one of the many with whom I am acquainted. He called out and asked if I was getting any good photographs. I yelled back that I'll send him some the next day.

When I turned around to address the SPD officer, he had vanished. To this day, I have no idea where he went. Perhaps beamed up to the mothership.

Another incident involved 10 officers, with weapons drawn, confronting 3 subjects. Now, this, I thought was a Kodak moment. I'm approximately 100 ft from the action. After I was noticed, one of the arresting officers yelled at me stating, "You're in a very dangerous position". Note that at this moment he is not paying attention to the subject he just handcuffed.

I tended towards the recently enacted Fla. law regarding standing one's ground and continued to photograph. As you can observe in the last photo, people are standing around far closer than I was. Shortly after this last photo was taken, two officers started walking in my direction. I beat feet across the street, J-walking in the process, and had the good fortune of a city bus passing by. There was a bus stop right across the street. So, I hopped on, paid my fare and headed south. As I mentioned, SPD is leery of people with cameras. After giving some thought to it. I guess I was in a dangerous position, I was behind a camera and the other folks weren't.

So, yes, one can be arrested for "taking photographs". The trick is getting a conviction. They have ways of dealing with that obstacle.

I agree that one can't be ordered to delete a photograph and the need for a warrant to view images. Unfortunately, a few of my cameras do not have a delete function.
--Bob

Officer Making an Arrest - Distance approx. 100 ft

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Officer and Suspect Notice Me

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Wider Photo of the Scene

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Those People are Closer

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Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

And photographers insisting that they have the right to take pictures when they have been asked not to, even if they are right, can also be idiots.

DannyKaye Loc: Sheffield now but soon moving to Blanzay

Basically you have the right, as do we all, to shoot in a public place. However, shooting on a beach, park or any other place where there are children is problematic. So I don’t do it, here’s the problem, sooner or later there will be enough complaints so the there are laws passed about shooting in public then we all loose so not stirring up idiots like the woman you encountered is a good idea.

A while ago I was outside the Photography Show in the UK, it happens that it is on next door to ComicCon and I was shooting a few people dressed as pirates when a kid jumped in front of me, ruined the shot and was a pain. Next thing I know his mother was accusing me of being a pervert and photographing kids, suddenly is was surrounded by concerned parents. I said that she should keep her kid under control and pointed out that he was hardly visible and only from the back but I still offered to delete the shot. By the time she had stopped the cosplayers had gone so I lost the shot :(

Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

We moved FL after years in the Philadelphia area. I have friends in the dicey neighborhoods artists in lofts

and I have never felt fear. Most of the time if you greet people or ask a question or just make some humanity you

find out a lot of good people are in the world. I don't believe the fears being spread. It is more dangerous then

the reality.

Shutterbug57

OK, I will. I was at the FC Cincinnati pro soccer game 2 weekends ago with my grandson (3yo). It was raining pretty steadily all game. He was wearing an adult sized, disposable poncho and the hood would not stay on well. So, I put an empty popcorn bucket on his head to hold the poncho hood on and for fun, as he likes to play with the empty buckets. Grandson got lots of likes and high 5s and 1 older fellow took his picture which chuckling and saying "great hat". Can't say that I had any issues with any of that.

Shutterbug57

Yeah, a conviction may be an issue, but there has been at least 1 case where the cop skipped the courts and just shot a photog from the media who was 50+ feet away. The stated cause was that the cop thought a camera on a tripod was a gun pointed at him.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ohio-photographer-shot-cop-andy-grimm-new-carlisle-news_us_59ae4862e4b0dfaafcf2124e

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

There are always outliers.
--Bob

Shutterbug57

Not saying it's normal, just that it can happen. Be careful, it's a jungle out there.

Lingen Loc: Grenada, Caribbean

syscosteve

No photo is worth a punch in the face or a smashed camera. An apology goes a long way, especially if you've already taken the shot. If not just walk on.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

I agree with you Tom--and that is my experience too. The fear is more dangerous and more harmful than the things feared.

krl48 Loc: NY, PA now SC

Better yet, take all the pictures you want with a cell phone. Odds are good nobody will even notice, or if they do, they won't give a s--t.

You can even fake that you're taking a selfie, when in reality you're shooting someone or something behind you.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

However, dealing with the police can be a time-consuming hassle. In most situations, I'd rather just delete the problematic images than insist on my rights as a photographer, wait for the police to show up, answer all their questions, present them with the evidence and hang around until they have finished writing up their report and cleared me to go. I have better things to do. And it's not worth the trouble over a few pictures. Shooting large format sheet film, then maybe. But not digital images.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I worked for a school photography and yearbook publishing company for several years and was cautioned to ask about students who could not be photographed in candid classroom photos and to avoid those students or ask the teacher to take them out of the room during the photography. Those photographs would only appear in a yearbook but the parents had the option to not have their children photographed. I can understand some parents not wanting their children photographed, but out in public and complaining loudly only draws attention to the parent bringing attention to themselves and their child(ren). If they are wanting to avoid the child being seen by a former partner or spouse, the yelling and screaming will possibly bring more attention than a photograph in which the child is not recorded. Some people are just idiots.