You probably made his head explode.

I also believe that many are told what to enforce, but not necessarily why. A security guard might know that there is no photography allowed in a particular location, yet, when confronted, they cannot provide any foundation for the reasoning.

Great information and I always hate reading about stories such as yours.

Obviously, nobody is perfect, especially me. When I was a cop, I tried my best to not make any mistakes. For me, it was more than just offering an inconvenience to someone, but what if I made a mistake handling a call, case, or arrest? Not only have I done something wrong, but I could face reprimand. In my eyes, and this came from one of my Sergeants, there are just too many people you can catch red-handed to try and fabricate something.

One thing that always frustrated me was that if someone called 911 and wanted the police, they could not be told no. If they felt that they saw something suspicious and called 911 then the police would have to at least go out and see. The job itself makes you paranoid and I lost a lot of trust in the general public because of it. I grew to the point where most everyone lied to me, it was just my job to catch them in the lie.

With that said, I would imagine that someone probably thought you were a pervert with a camera and called the police. They came out and found you, matching the description provided by the caller, and it was their duty to at least investigate it. You knew you were doing nothing wrong, but the caller did not and the police did not. What if the person with the camera actually was a pervert taking photographs of underage girls? Then it would have been worth it for the police to come out.

Also, you have to remember that people can be stupid. Harsh, but true, and I challenge anyone to disagree with me. I remember a call where someone was at one gas station, across the street from another, and stated that they were witnessing an armed robbery inside the store. We run hot to the location, bodies completely throbbing with adrenaline, and find that there is a minivan outside the front door and the large rolling door to the van is open. Nobody is inside the store. We go in and find that it was the newspaper delivery person just hanging out inside while the clerk went to the bathroom. There were no weapons, none were ever seen, and nobody else inside the store other than those two. I still do not know what made the caller believe they were witnessing an armed robbery. Not every caller gets it right.

I have seen cops, even some I work with, become rude for no reason. It happened to me as well, yet, I like to believe that it was only after they were rude first or it was someone that I had a history with. Cops are usually the “alpha male” or “type A personality” type which means they do not like being challenged or being wrong, myself included. It is a blow to ego to find out you ran a tag wrong and actually had photo enthusiast who was excited about new equipment. That is not as fun as catching a perv in action.

Dress and attitude have a lot to do with it, but where I worked, I rarely came across many people dressed professionally, unless they were out of town. So I overlooked that. It was much easier to look someone in the eyes and watch their body language to see if they were telling the truth or not. But not everyone thinks alike and while we never profiled, I would probably be remiss if I said it never happens.

One of my biggest concerns is that this seems to be low on the radar for law enforcement. I can count on one hand the number of calls I had regarding suspicious persons with cameras. Focus on the law is spent more on search warrants, narcotic investigations, domestic violence, and more serious crimes of that nature. I do not recall ever seeing any information being passed out, or offered in a formal classroom setting, regarding the rights of photographers and what to do. So I believe that leaves a very large gray area for individual police officer interpretation of what is right and wrong. Which means you will find an inconsistent handling of photographers across the board, some right, and some wrong.

Had it been me, after a short conversation with you, I would have been able to tell what you were doing and at that point, would have been more interested in your camera than any allegations the caller originally tried to come up with.

A while back I was sitting in my car at a stop light waiting to turn into a coffee shop and FOR FIVE SECONDS took some photos with my brand-new just-purchased polarized lens filter to see how it worked on glare. 10 minutes later this cop shows up wanted to talk to “the guy in the SUV.” I raised my hand and said it was me and he went on to tell me that someone called to complain that “I was taking pictures of women” and that “It was illegal if someone called in a complaint.”

He also claimed my tag was registered to a Motorhome.

At that moment I realized it wouldn’t do me any good to argue so I showed him my camera and it didn’t have any pictures of women on it (thankfully. ;-) He then showed my how my tag was registered to a motorhome, until I pointed out that he had typed one of the letters in my tag wrong. After which he wrapped up by telling me, in a very pissy way, to “don’t let this happen again.”

I knew I was in the right but he came across as a cop with an attitude so I didn’t challenge him. What I didn’t do, and wish I had, was get his name and badge number and report him to Shirley. I brushed if off because I recognized that he was probably always dealing with people who deserved his attitude, but I do think less of him for not being able to moderate. He, unlike you Dub, didn’t mirror my behavior.

I actually kinda viewed this situation as it was happening from 3rd person perspective because I pretty much knew nothing negative was going to happen to me; I was in a public coffee shop in broad daylight and I had done nothing legally wrong.

As way of giving some context, I am a 45 year old white Ga Tech grad (but look like a 35 year old Ga Tech grad; i.e. I definitely don’t look or dress like a radical) and the cop was probably my age and black. I am in no way racist; the contrary I’m politically liberal.

What bothered me about it was what if it had been a white cop and a 30 year old black Ga Tech grad who wasn’t dressed professionally? And what if it had been in the evening or at night in a secluded area and not in a coffee shop in broad daylight? That would have scared the shit out of me even not having done anything wrong, and I’m sure similar occurs everyday to non-white males all the time here in the US. It made me really contemplate what some of the people who might be assumed to be of the lower classes and of African heritage just might go through with police just because some of their race or ethnicity are not law abiding citizens. Makes it kinda hard for them to respect law enforcement in general, no?

I guess my relaying my experience begs the question both of photography rights and commentary on sociology as it interacts with the law enforcement profession.

So dub, I’d be curious your take on all this?

I believe it depends on the situation. For me, if I came across someone who was shooting I would talk to them and see what was going on and take it from there. If after talking to them their story seemed fishy, then it might be time to dig a little further. If they were trespassing and the property owner wanted a criminal trespass warning documented, then you would need their ID, and if they did not produce it or provided false information, that is a different story.

I would never just walk up to someone without cause and just start demanding an ID.

So far, so have I…

i always go where it is legal or where i have permission, so i dont have to worry about all that drama.

There were many times when I would lie to people during an investigation. They lied to me, so I did the same to them. Usually it would lead to finding the truth and the real culprit.

Glad to hear that you pulled through your ordeal without too many scratches.