‘ANTISOCIAL’ PHOTOGRAPHY CAN GET YOU ARRESTED, WARN POLICE

By Chris Cheesman Wednesday, 20 August 2014
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AP INVESTIGATES Police warn they can arrest a photographer if he or she refuses to give their name and address and an officer deems their photography in a public street to be ‘antisocial’.

The police warning, following a clash in Brighton, East Sussex, last month, echoes accusations of antisocial behaviour levelled at a photographer in 2009 before controversial anti-terror laws were repealed. This case eventually led to Lancashire Police paying out thousands of pounds in an out-of-court settlement to amateur photographer Robert Patefield, who sued the force for wrongful arrest.

The latest spat involves 81-year-old photographer Richard Selby, who has filed a complaint with Sussex Police claiming that an officer threatened to arrest him if he did not identify himself.

Selby – a former assistant to renowned American photographer Art Kane – ran into trouble while taking pictures of ‘hen parties' in Brighton.

The former freelance photographer was approached by two police community support officers following complaints by members of the public at 11pm, in West Street, Brighton, on 25 July.

Selby says the people being photographed had not objected to his picture-taking, and that he had only taken a couple of photos when the officers approached.

The incident led to the PCSOs calling a police constable who, Selby claims, asked for his name.

'I said, "I don't have to give you my name", and he said, "I could arrest you".'

The constable then summoned a police sergeant to the scene.

Feared 'spending weekend' in cells

Selby says he supplied the sergeant with his name, for fear of 'spending the weekend in police cells', and he agreed to 'go home'.

‘It was intimidating... surrounded by four police [officers] demanding my name and threatening me,' Selby told Amateur Photographer(AP).

The force claims that one of Selby's photographs shows ‘a teenage girl's bottom in hotpants with her lower buttocks clearly visible'.

A Sussex Police spokesman added: ‘The sergeant suggested [to Selby] that this wasn't appropriate.'

Read More at: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/540908/antisocial-photography-can-get-you-arrested-warn-police

Sergeant Wharton Leicestershire Police pictured above has no objections to people taking photographs of woman in short clothes
of course sharing your local safer community officers photographs
can get you arrested and thrown before the court on trumped
up charges of harassment, only to be thrown out by the CPS.

Also taking photographs from a distance of homophobic
town Cllrs like Charles Haworth leaving a police station
can also get you arrested.

Taking photographs when the police are around can some times
become very high risk.