Popular newspapers in the UK have all covered the story of a 15 year old schoolboy using his mobile phone to photograph Wimbledon station was stopped and searched by three police community support officers. They claimed to be doing so under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, although they do not appear to have had the supervision of a constable that this requires, nor is it clear that the authorisation was in force that would enable it to be done.
But, apart from being an abuse of law, what the PCSOs did was simply incredibly stupid. But also part of a concerted anti-photographer culture being promoted by police and Home Office through poster campaigns and press releases.
Marc Vallée’s blog has a number of posts related to this and has recently posted Terror Law and Photography about Clause 75 of the new Counter-Terrorism Bill 2008, which will create a new offence which may well cover photographing or publishing a photograph of any policeman (or members of the armed forces or intelligence services), with draconian sentences.
The Bill does include the statement:
It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action, although I’m not at all sure what the courts might consider a reasonable excuse.
Could pictures like these put me in jail?
Marc’s post also mentions that the Home Office is about to post new operational guidance to police about using their stop and search powers, and quotes the draft as clarifying that the police have no powers to stop people taking photographs in authorised areas under Section 44, but if they “reasonably suspect that photographs are being taken as part of hostile terrorist reconnaissance” they may search the person and possibly make an arrest, when they can seize cameras, films and cards as evidence (though they must not destroy or delete images.)
The Wimbledon schoolboy is yet another example of how the police (and PCSOs) misuse existing law. Giving them further powers can only make things worse. The future of photography on our streets looks increasingly bleak.