Shooting cops may get you jailed

[TimStannard]

I'll anticipate Staines Ciné & Video Society's sudden boost in membership as various fundamentalist groups decide to take up amateur filmmaking as a hobby.

[Mark W]

^^^^ lols.

Also see this - even the head of MI5 has reservations about simialr issues....
BBC NEWS | UK | Ministers 'using fear of terror'

[TimStannard]

Mark, it seems we've come to a very strange place where (1) you're linking to a BBC article quoting from the Telegraph which supports your view and (2) the Tories have moved to the left of the Labour government.

[Mark W]

Yep - truly we live in confusing times...

[BritishEye]

So that's one more thing we can't film...
You know that the real terrorists probably wouldn't actually film anything.

Ah well. I've never needed to film a police officer. I'm sure if it were for a good reason, you can grab some permission?

Funny title though. Thank goodness this is on a video-related forum and we knew what it meant.

[TimStannard]

I meant to post this last week. I received an email from a friend who's a fellow filmmaker. I suggested he posted it here but he claimed he had trouble registering. Anyway, with his permission, I've reproduced his email here. (There's no suggestion that anyone was out of order here, it's just a fairly amusing tale - which I guess was a bit scary at the time - associated with the topic)
Hi Tim

I got searched and detained by MI 5 on the weekend. My brother and I were racing our bicycles alongside the Queens’ carriage through Great Windsor Park on her way to Royal Ascot. I was using my monopod which kind of looks like a barrel of rifle. Security was not happy to say the least and pulled us over for questioning. Best of all, it was all captured in high definition video by my friend who managed to escape the police. It was a real Charles de menezes moment.

I kid you not.
Steve


I'm lookng forward to seeing the footage.

[Joe Ripple]

Hey Guys,

While I am both new to the site and living in the U.S., I can tell you that I am a recently retired police officer/detective. If I can shed any light on this for you, I will. Although I suspect that our laws are somewhat different, at least I can give you a point of view from the other side of "the thin blue line," as it were.

We don't like to be filmed. Not saying that we couldn't be filmed, we just don't like it. It's kind of like someone showing up at your job, and just starts filming you...without any reason whatsoever. I agree with the writer that asking is always better, and many times our local news crews would do stories on us. They would, however, ask what was ok to shoot, was anyone undercover, etc. You get the idea.

Yes, we are in public, and yes, we would wind up on the news. Only to get a call the next day from the Chief's Office, wanting to know why we "Didn't have our hat on at a homicide scene." That, coupled with a lot of monday morning quarterbacking from the public as to why we did what we did, and - dare I say - The Rodney King incident (which I was disgusted at personally), have led to us hating to be filmed.

Anyway, if you have any questions, I'll be happy and honest as I can be when it comes to this topic.

Great site, and I look forward to learning!

[Andy Lockwood]

Interesting to hear the other side of the camera's view..... but to take up your analogy of someone rocking up to film me at work - it's slightly different if only because I'm not paid for by the public.... Taking a role in life that's paid for by the public should mean you're prepared to be accountable to them.


I've just read this back to myself and it sounds unfriendly - it's not meant to be - it's just the other side of the coin...

[TimStannard]

Originally Posted by Andy Lockwood it's slightly different if only because I'm not paid for by the public.... Taking a role in life that's paid for by the public should mean you're prepared to be accountable to them.

Agreed that it's slightly different, but whilst the police are paid for by the public and have to remain accountable to the public, that's not the quite same as saying any Tom, Dick or Harry should be able to stick a camera in their faces and then stick the results on YouTube. Let's face it they have so much red tape designed to make them accountable and to show there's no possibility of injustice that it's surprising they manage to get any policing work done. (I'm not suggesting this problem is limited to policing)

Don't get me wrong, I'm of the opinion that if you're in a public role - especially one paid for by the public - you a constantly "on display" and fair game. I'm just saying
I can understand why the police might well get irate:
a) when most of them probably did not join up to be celebreties/YouTube stars
b) when most people filming them are filming solely to show them in a bad light.

[The Gaffer]

If you can't take a joke you shouldn't join the job.

Ours is now a video society. The police now video all demonstrations as a matter of course and, in return should act as though they were constantly under public scrutiny. I'm sure that the officers concerned in beating the cr*p out of Rodney King would rather that it hadn't been videod but if that case saved a few others from being on the receiving end of "summary justice" then it was a good thing.

I have no time for those who provoke the police, then video the result (that stupid tart who got a slap at the G8, for example) but then the police are supposed to be professional and not get wound-up by idiots.

We are slowly getting to the point where it's assumed that videoing is illegal unless it's specifically allowed and, in my opinion, it's important to reinforce the rights of anyone to do anything unless it's against the law. If that means that a few policemen have to put on their hats when in view of the public, so be it. Wearing full uniform is part of the job description, if they don't like it, they can become a security guard. In the same way, if a policeman whinges that he/she can't work properly if they're being watched and videoed, then they should remove all the "security" cameras from public places so that we, the public, don't have to feel watched all the time.

The police are paid by the taxpayer to protect them. It's not the taxpayers' duty to protect bad cops by not videoing them.