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Say "cheese," NYPD! The NY Post reports that the department is finally schooling officers on photography rights, releasing an order stating, in part, "Photography and the videotaping of public places, buildings and structures are common activities within New York City... and is rarely unlawful." It continues on to clarify that cops have no right to demand photos be destroyed or deleted, or request to view photos taken by an individual. Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne noted that they're attempting to balance their efforts to stop possible terrorist activity while keeping in mind the First Amendment—but will this reminder help people like Arun Wiita? His was just one of the many incidents where the long arm of the law attempted to stop an innocent photographer; most recently an MTA worker was given a summons for not having permits to photograph underground—something that you actually don't need a permit for! While it's a good sign the NYPD is getting a reminder, you still may want to carry around a copy of the photographer's bill of rights with you.
NYPD Gets Lesson in Photography
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great news!
A welcome development! It's funny that they have to 'school' officers on the law. But still welcome.
This should be the first of several refreshers including a recap on how its not ok to rape drunk women or to barge cyclists of their bikes.
Good news.
Darn.
I was just getting used to being a "Radical"...
The kind of thing that maybe should be taught in... the Police Academy?
Or even middle school civics class.
not gonna change a thing, they're still going to exert their authority. I see the Fed guards do it all the time to tourists at Federal Plaza. I see that slow walk towards the photographer and it ain't for helpful directions.
It's not "their authority" to exert.
I have to agree. Those Federal guards have no class whatsoever. One of them screamed at me for daring to stand on the steps of the Court of International Trade while I took a picture across the street. NYPD cops in a booth got huffy at me for taking pictures near the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. I guess when you're stuck in a guard booth, you take every opportunity you have to feel important.
But the dumbest policy is at NYS courts. My job has me going in there on a semi-regular basis. They force everyone to check cameras and digital voice recorders. But not cell phones. Helloooo! Most cell phones have cameras nowadays and many have video. And all have voice memos. Even with an older one that doesn't have voice memos, just call your own number and put it on speakerphone once voicemail picks up. Voila. Instant voice recorder. Better yet, with cell phone cameras and recorders, there's no evidence on the device since the picture or sound can be transmitted then erased. I swear, these idiots in charge of "security" have the tech savvy of a paper clip.
Calm down with the low blows guys. If you tret the NYPD with respect, they usually respect you right back.
It would be great if I spelled that properly / could consolidate the two posts. Sorry for that.
A. "fed guards" aren't NYPD officers. They are Federal Officers. Not the same departmet whatsoever.
B. There is alot of anti police sentiment here. Let's all calm down. Do we forget that criminals are always far worse for NYC than cops on the occasional power trip? (Excluding the actual criminal conduct that happens. Criminals, badge or not should be jailed.)
Generally speaking if you treat the officer with respect and consideration you will be extended the same courtesy.
Bull!
I've seen the NYPD treat visiting families like crap in broad daylight. There is no way people like that would show any disrespect to the police.
There is alot of anti police sentiment here.
Maybe for a lot of folks here, that's based on a lifetime of experiences with the NYPD? And these are folks who follow the laws.
"Generally speaking if you treat the officer with respect and consideration you will be extended the same courtesy."
OK, but remind me again: what was it about these people legally taking photographs in a public space that showed their lack of respect and consideration towards police officers?
Generally speaking if you treat the officer with respect and consideration you will be extended the same courtesy.
Generally speaking, yes. But considering how much power they have over individual citizens, it's right to be outraged and dismayed by the 5% of the time (probably a conservative estimate, in my experience) that they act like brutish, uncivilized, arrogant thugs.
Yeah but watching that cop shove that Critical Masshole dipshit to the ground was awesome, I wish that would happen to all Crictical Massholes.
Oh yeah! Unwarranted violent assaults by the police against an innocent civilian is HIGH-larious! The next time it happens to you make sure to get it on video and post it on youtube so we can all have a good LOL over it!
"Oh yeah! Unwarranted violent assaults by the police against an innocent civilian is HIGH-larious!"
It is when it happens to Critical Massholes.
Yeah sure right. A.C.A.B.
Wouldn't it be nice if the fearful general population didn't assume I'm nefarious because I'm an artist with a lens. If only the public can also learn what is legal so they don't fear me when I use a camera with a tripod. If I could afford a digital one then maybe I'd look more like a tourist and not get harassed on the street.
Don't real criminals have tiny hidden spy cameras anyway?
it is illegal to use a tripod on nyc streets without a permit. and to obtain a permit you need insurance. this is in the event that someone trips over your tripod and sues the city.
that being said, the whole "be nice to cops and they will be nice back" is bullshit.
Those rules were revised last year:
"Permits will not be required for casual photographers, tourists, credentialed members of the media, or other members of the public who do not use vehicles or equipment or assert exclusive use of City property."
"A permit is not required for filming that uses hand-held cameras or tripods and does not assert exclusive use of City property."
From http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/070108_moftb_adopts_rules.shtml
It's a start. Dunno if it will do much good-many cops, it seems, regard photography as suspicious activity since taking photos in the subway is not something they would do.
"Go take pictures of squirrels" is one quote.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Just in my email today, from a list I subscribe to. I've edited this a bit, as it's long, and I've removed the names and specific ages of the "victims", but I've left in the names of the police officers. This is, to the best of my knowledge, all true, and another reason why the NYPD has a bad rap:
DETAINED WITH MY DAUGHTER BY NEW YORK CITY POLICE
On Saturday April 4, 2009 at about 9:00 PM I was standing with my
---year-old daughter on the subway platform of the Uptown Bound
Number 2 Train at the 34th Street and Penn Station station of the New
York City subway system, when I was approached by a New York City
Police Officer, Officer Cea, Badge No. 2396.
Officer Cea asked me who was the young lady with me. I replied that
she was my daughter, aged 7. Officer Cea then asked to see my
ID. I provided him with my drivers license. He then asked me a number
of other questions such as what school my daughter attended, the
address where we lived, whether I was married and living with the
mother of the child and so on. I politely answered each of his
questions.
At about that time, the Number 2 Train for which I had been waiting
arrived as we were on our way home in the Bronx. I attempted to board
the train with my daughter. Officer Cea grabbed both me and my
daughter by the arms, pulling us off so that we could not board the
train. He then called for back up and about five more police officers
arrived. When I asked Officer Cea why he was doing this, he said that
he “had a hunch”. The police then took my daughter a few feet away and
questioned her outside of my presence. We were then taken down to the
police station inside Penn Station.
I was put into one room and my daughter was put into another room
where I could not see her. I observed about four police going into the
sealed room to question her.
Soon, some higher ranking police officers arrived including a
Lieutenant and a Captain. They called my wife, who was at home and she
verified that I was her husband and the father of our daughter. I also
provided the officers with ID including the medical cards for my
daughter, which they copied.
Finally, after more than one hour of this inquisition, they decided to
take us home in a police car. The police officer driving was Sargent Winding. I directed him to my
house in the Bronx. However, near my house he paused his police car in
front of a Sunoco Gas Station. I asked what he was waiting for and he
said that he was waiting for another police car to come down from Mt.
Vernon, who was stuck in traffic.
I kept asking him and also the lady police officer who was in the back
seat with me what Mt. Vernon had to do with this. They said that they
needed a police officer from Mt. Vernon because this was in their
district. However, I knew that this was not true because, even though
Mt. Vernon borders on the Bronx, it is nowhere near to where I live.
After about 10 or 15 more minutes, the police car from Mt. Vernon
arrived and then the two cars drove up to the apartment building where
I live.
I called my wife on my cell phone, informing her that we were outside
and she came out. I was able to see the police officers accompany my wife into the
building.
It was obvious that they proceeded to search my apartment. After about
15 minutes more, Officer Winding came out and let my ---year-old
daughter out of the front seat, where she was still locked inside, and
she ran to rejoin her mother. Sargent Winding pulled me out of the
back seat too, as I had been forced to lie down in the back seat, but
then the police officer from Mt. Vernon ordered me back into the back
seat, so I had to get back in and was locked inside again.
There followed a discussion between Officer Winding and my wife. My
wife asked him what he was going to do with me, as I was still locked
inside the police car. He replied that I was going to be let out too.
Finally, Sargent Winding asked my wife to sign something that looked
like a ticket book. My wife signed it. It was then that I was let out
of the police car and allowed to return to my apartment with my
family.
This entire ordeal lasted a little over two hours, as I got back into
my apartment a few minutes after 11:00 PM.
My wife and daughter are traumatized by this incident. My wife wants
to move to another city and does not want
to live in New York City any more, as she is afraid of the police.
My wife says that when the police officers were inside searching our
apartment, they asked her questions of a sexual nature. They asked her
if she had a boyfriend.
I still do not know what this was all about. I am especially wondering
about the Mt. Vernon connection.
I am now afraid to go anywhere with my daughter. I feel that I should
bring a court case against the City of New York for doing this. Any
advice would be appreciated.
If it's true, they should go to the press. I'm sure the Post or the Daily News would love a story like that. At the very least, his wife shouldn't have signed whatever it was (she should have known what it was, you don't sign anything without reading it) and they should sue for millions. If they just hide scared in their apartment, the police will just keep doing this to others.
to think that to teach this very basics, is like teaching rocket science...the resistance of the rule of the stronger idiot.
I don't necessarily believe this. If all this was really true, and as egregious as it sounds, why hasn't this guy contacted an attorney or taken it to the media???
I believe it, lived it. Hysteria and Mass "illusionary fault finding" for profit.
Cost of locking up Americans too high - Pew study
Mon Mar 2, 2009 7:44pm GMT
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the corrections system, which includes jail, prison, probation and supervision, more than double the rate of a quarter century ago, according to a report released on Monday by the Pew Center on the States.
The study, which said the current rate compares to one in 77 in 1982, concluded that with declining resources, more emphasis should be put on community supervision, not jail or prison.
"Violent and career criminals need to be locked up, and for a long time. But our research shows that prisons are housing too many people who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far lower cost," said Adam Gelb, director of the Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which produced the report.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest prison population of any country in the world, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Most of those in the U.S. corrections system -- one in 45 -- are already on probation or parole, with one in 100 in prison or jail, the Pew study found.
Those numbers are higher in certain areas of the country, and Georgia tops all states with one in 13 adults in the justice system. The other leading states are Idaho, where one in 18 are in corrections and Texas, where the rate is one in 22. In the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., nearly 5 percent of adults are in the city's penal system.
This was the first criminal justice study that took into account those on probation and parole as well as federal convicts, Pew said.
'STATES SPENDING TOO MUCH'
The numbers are also concentrated among groups, with a little more than 9 percent of black adults in prisons or jails or on probation or parole, as opposed to some 4 percent of Hispanics and 2 percent of whites.
Pew compiled the report as states consider cutting corrections spending during the recession. The research group said that by changing sentencing laws and probation programs states can lower incarceration rates and save money.
"Among the many programs that are competing for scarce taxpayer dollars, there is one area of the state budget that could use some trimming, and that area is corrections," said Susan Urahn, the center's managing director, in a call with reporters. "The bottom line is that states are spending too much."
Penitentiary systems have been the fastest-growing spending area for states after Medicaid, the healthcare program for those with low income. Over the last 20 years their spending on criminal justice has increased more than 300 percent, the study found.
During the last 25 years prison and jail populations have grown 274 percent to 2.3 million in 2008, according to the Pew research, while those under supervision grew 226 percent over the same span to 5.1 million.
---drewo---
that story
DETAINED WITH MY DAUGHTER BY NEW YORK CITY POLICE
is easily searched,
while most lawyers would say
dont talk to police without a lawyer
dont answer questions without lawyer
dont sign anything
dont consent to any search without a warrant
him and his wife was obviously gave up their rights
even when it seemed that the daughter was used as a bargaining chip to give up those rights
he posted a story that does not stand up to scrutiny (google it)
and left alot out to make himself look like the victim of harassment
he is a questionable character with a history of questionable online statements and questionable conduct with children...
just google "Officer Cea, Badge No. 2396"
still in america, even as a well documented asshole with questionable interests in moniors he did not exercize his constitutional rights
I guess it should be New York Photography Department. I think installing security cameras in common areas like parks and down towns becomes more and more important as cities and towns expand. A constant stream of consumers and visitors are vital for the success of individuals security, and video surveillance is a great security tool to keep consumers safe and towns thriving. I guess, I'm making sense of this rather that NYPD attend photography lessons. Protect your home and office with quality Security Cameras from Spyville
Security Cameras from Spyville
Ha! Stupid spammer tries to put his ad on Gothamist and can't even format his spam link right. I love it.