TerryVS

DART is a transportation agency funded by tax dollars. It is public property.

TerryVS

The cop is a she. According to her department she violated their rules and was punished for it.

According to the court she violated the basic rights of a citizen of the United States. She was wrong! She's lucky to escape criminal charges.

Adamborz

Not going to argue, but in SOME cases if a photographer interferes or hinders or obstructs an investigation, expect to have your equipment taken. Don’t cross the crime scene tape and you’ll be fine. But if the police show up and you’re standing over a dead body taking photographs... you’re going to have some explaining to do.

Been doing this 29 years.... I’ve been down this road a time or 2.

Scott24

If the person is in the public domain shot away it is legal. However,if you can help someone in distress put the camera down and help. There is a higher order here help your fellow man or women. Aslo if your picture is exploitative get a life,some character and some empathy every picture should tell a story it should not be look at my picture I'm an asshole for taking it.

TerryVS

No argument from me! If anyone is interfering do what you have to do. Crossing the yellow tape is a no brainer. Sadly we have a "video service" some of the TV stations and the newspaper is using. Basically kids with no training (other than watching Nightcrawler!) that are a problem. One has already been caught shooting a body and yes, the camera had a home in a deputy's car for a couple of hours!

Since you're in law enforcement I will tell you an issue I have and hopefully it will make sense the next time a photographer ask the question. Since we're at a distance often it's hard to tell where a body is or if it's visable. After working on this for some time I've made a little progress teaching local officers we DON'T want to shoot the body. In order to do that we need to know where it/they are. We get bad-rapped sometime with the officer believing we want to shoot the body. Not the case!

Just like I'm sure you know a squirrel or two in your profession we have them to. That said we want the same things, bad guys in jail, incidents properly investigated etc. It may be my right to be there but if there's an issue (family members nearby, shy witnesses etc) all an officer has to do is talk to me. We're all working for the end of the shift! Be careful out there sir.

Adamborz

Here is a person/ photographer that I would work well with!

You’re right, we all have a job to do!

Just to be clear, I’ve never arrested a professional photographer or taken a pro’s gear. It’s the people with their phones that don’t respect crime scenes that usually need to petition the Court for their property back.

Anyhow, I watch on the news how people video others getting robbed, assaulted etc and don’t help and I just shake my head. That is what the OP was talking about and I agree 100% that the world has become a strange place.

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

Photojournalism is totally different from any other kind of photography. A photojournalists job is to record the truth in images, pretty or horrifying, it makes no difference. The images that have changed the world are rarely visually appealing. Think of Cappa on Normandy, the emolating Buddhist monk in Saigon, the naked napalmed Vietamese girl, scenes from 911, the "cricifix" at Git Mo....you get the "picture". Without these, we would all be (more) naive (than we already are). We owe all these to the courage to the photojournalists who didn't stand back, who didn't let their horror overcome doing their job whether or not they are on the payroll.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Been there, done that.
In doing so I made some good friends in the local police dept and helped the drivers widow get compensated for the death of her husband.
The only difference was I was threatened by a firefighter, then questioned by a police officer, I was outside the scene tape and not in the way. It was raining and the police depts. camera failed.
I was at the scene photographing the truck accident, when the police dept camera failed the officer that had questioned me ask you photograph the removal of the driver and get closer shots of the scene.
The questions were : did the driver have a heart attack and lose control of the Semi, or did the loss of control cause his death? The investigation found the driver had swerved to avoid a very slow driver on the interstate went off the highway across two lane of east bound traffic, 100yds of rough avoided going into an open basement of from a demolished house the across a two lane outer road being stopped by a power line and 4 brand new cars on a dealers lot. The final ruling was the driver was trying to control the rig, shown by the tracks of him steering around the hole and missing an occupied building.
This was many yrs. before the mandatory seat belt law.

Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

Not everything in the world has to be available. In other countries like Syria the video and stills of children’s suffering from poison gas was horrible. I think we needed to see that. A very good travel photographer talked of having resistance from some countries people thinking they are exploited.he switched to very small quality compacts and was careful who he shot.
If my wife or daughter was in a medical emergency on a street I wouldn’t want a photographer shooting her distress.
Common sense has been thrown out the window. Some want teachers wearing holstered guns in kindergarden. Our leader wants a gun fight to protect people.
Common sense is not a legal issue. Somethings can be left private. And some things need
To be seen. Like the injured children in Syria.

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

Did you have to show us so many?
Having a reason to take photos like this, documenting an event or history is fine. Supplying them to interested parties or say, selling a book that people choose to buy is fine. Displaying them on a photo web site like UUH (to me) sucks!