Photographing and videoing the police
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A picture paints a thousand words and can play an important role at protests.
Good photos or video can
- support the defence case for a person charged with a criminal offence.
- provide evidence to support a complaint.
- be given to the media for publicity.
- to be used to help bring claims for compensation.
- encourage the police to behave properly.
For the above reasons, many police officers do not like being photographed. However, you are without your rights to film or video police at protests. Human Rights Monitors have reported that that they have been told not to take photographs at protests or they will be arrested and on one occasion an undercover police officer threatened to snatch a camera from an observer's hands. Another police officer has requested that film be deleted and not publicised. The police have no powers to do this.
This issue was referred to in the Ombudsman's Report 2007-2008. Case study 40 on page 103 of the Report dealt with a situation where a young man was detained by police till he deleted a photograph from his phone camera. The Ombudsman identified "an error of law" and "as a result, a memo was distributed throughout the command involved reminding police that it is not an offence to take photographs of police in the execution of their duties."
See Street Photographers' Rights at the Arts Law Centre of Australia website for more information.
Call to Reform Police Powers by Chris Merritt The Australian 28 August 2008. "Civil libertarians have called for reform of police powers after a Sydney art student was arrested and pressured to delete video footage of a violent clash between 20 late-night revelers and between 30 and 40 police."
Two legal points
It is sometimes an offence to audio record a conversation without the other person's consent under s7 Surveillance Devices Act. Many videos have audio facilities.
Also, it is an offence under s60C Crimes Act to collect information about an officer (a photograph?) with the intention of using that information to assault, stalk, harass, intimidate or otherwise harm that person. Clearly, collecting information like a photo of misbehaviour to pass on to the proper authorities would not be an offence.
G20 protests London April 2009
The G20 protests in London in April 2009 have now become a modern case study on police-protester interaction and the role of the police. The Guardian newspaper has been the main media outlet for collecting material on police misbehavior. In many ways, the protest was not unusual, except for the death of Ian Tomlinson following an assault by police, which focused attention on the initial media spin that police denied any earlier “contact” with the victim. The protest also showed the important role of new technology in the form of mobile phone cameras.
Important video clips taken at the protest include
- the police attack on Tomlinson just prior to his death
- the attempted resuscitation of Ian Tomlinson showing as false
earlier police claims that police officers were attacked
while were trying to save Tomlinson's life.
- the police baton charge against press photographers
- a plain clothes officer using a baton
- police threatening photographers with arrest
For background reading on the G20 protests, see the article on the use of anti-terrorism laws against protesters and police media spin.