Street photography in Britain

I am never one to share the cry of scare-mongers without looking deeper. So when changes to the Terrorism Act appear to have given the Police rather draconian powers against photography in pubic, I wanted to gain some clarity on our regal rights. It turns out those scare-mongers have been at work again.

We regularly read cases where innocent individuals are, for want of a better word, bullied by Police officers into deleting photographs taken in public spaces. The justification seems to be Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which many are reading as a legal control over what and where you can photograph in public.

Section 44

This section of the terrorism act has been criticised as giving the police all manner of power over public photography, but in fact, from a strictly legal perspective (and is not that what the Police are all about?) it is quite impotent. Here are the guidelines:

The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital images in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place.  Officers should not prevent people taking photographs unless they are in an area where photography is prevented by other legislation.

In a recent BBC Radio 4 Law in Action program, the picture was clarified by Rupert Grey of media specialist law firm Swan Turton explained that Police may:

stop and search, look at what you have got and that is the limit of authority under that section. What appears to have been happening after that is they have, in some cases, arrested and then de-arrested the photographer. In other cases they have seized their material. In one case they deleted the material – and that is, in itself, a criminal offence.

This is encouraging for the legal rights of a photographer, and if a heavy-handed tactic is experienced, the law appears to be on our side. 

It is, however, a Police Officer’s interpretation of the law at the point of confrontation that is the most troublesome factor, however, and it seems from reports that some officers are either deliberately or ignorantly manipulating those ignorant of the law.

Section 43

This section, on the other hand, offers the Police far broader powers with regard to Terrorism. But it is not all bad. Again, from the Police guidelines:

If officers reasonably suspect that photographs are being taken as part of hostile terrorist reconnaissance, a search under section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 or an arrest should be considered.  Film and memory cards may be seized as part of the search, but officers do not have legal power to delete images or destroy film.  Although images may be viewed as part of a search, to preserve evidence when cameras or other devices are seized, officers should not normally attempt to examine them.  Cameras and other devices should be left in the state they were found and forwarded to appropriately trained staff for forensic examination.  The person being searched should never be asked or allowed to turn the device on or off because of the danger of evidence being lost or damaged.

There are two very interesting elements to this, particularly that Officers are directed to not normally attempt to examine equipment for fear of damaging evidence, even so far as not turning a device on or off. Section 43 does permit the confiscation of equipment, storage devices such as memory cards in particular, and to be retained for up to 48hrs and for up to 96hrs with the authority of a Chief Inspector.

There is one element of Section 43 that is worthy of note. Section 43 can only be used when there is “reasonable suspicion that the person is a terrorist”, which, though it sounds open to interpretation, is going to tie the Officer up in a mountain of paperwork – hence the far more commonly used Section 44. 

It is not as bad as it looked

There is clearly no legal right for a Police Officer to insist or request that any images are deleted, or that a photographer simply stops recording images. If they want to stop you under Section 44, then they also have no right of confiscation, just the right to examine images taken. Of course, the aggravation of going through the whole process is bad enough, regardless of the outcome, and it seems the incidents that have been reported boil down to a lack of understanding of the real rights of everyone involved.

There’s nothing new here, but with my photography ambitions aiming in a particular direction, this has now become relevant to me. I hope I’ll never need to draw on this knowledge, and I do hope I’ll not be at the wrong end of a Police officer without a clear understanding of my legal rights.

The official guidelines on Stop and Search in relation to terrorism
A lawyer’s point of view on Section 44

A question about sketching

The last burst of panic over these laws recently, specifically over rights regarding photographing the Police, get me thinking about other forms of image capture. Could a drawing, one which holds a recognisable image of Police and public buildings, for example, fall foul of the same laws? I am planning on putting that to the test!

---