Are the outside of the police station not allowed to be photographed?

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rayonline

1734 posts

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#208639 20-Feb-2017 23:26

Hobby of mine. First time doing night street photography with traditional b/w film. Saw this single person by the clean wall and thought it was a nice composition. A moment later her colleague in uniform asked for my ID when I was a short stroll away. I just said it's a hobby with my camera club and doing some street photography, a single person, clean wall, nice composition. Couldn't show them the image because it was a film camera.

I've read the website on the Police site via Google and it said if I am standing on public area is allowed, if private land permission by the landlord. What about police stations?

Cheers

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andrewNZ

2487 posts

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#1723420 21-Feb-2017 06:34

Forget, the building, you photographed a woman for no apparent reason and then walked off. If I was her, I'd want to know who the hell you were too.

Legality aside, taking someone's picture without their consent is a bit off IMO.

corksta

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#1723428 21-Feb-2017 07:18

No issue with photographing a police station, but obviously the person is waiting outside with a police officer for a reason. Maybe they were the victim of a crime, maybe they witnessed a serious crime, maybe they were recently told a family member had died. You taking a photograph of them would naturally arouse suspicion.

Geektastic

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#1723514 21-Feb-2017 09:58

It's perfectly legal to take photographs of people in public places without their consent, however, provided said images are not indecent.

It would not be legal to use those images for anything other than editorial use unless you obtained Model Consent.

It would not be legal (generally) to take images of a person in a place where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g. in their own back yard) but someone standing on a street in public? They may not like it but that isn't relevant to the legality of doing it.

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1723530 21-Feb-2017 10:12

AFAIK the police do not have the right to ask you for ID.

You do have to provide identifying information (name, address, DOB, occupation) if asked. But they can't ask you to produce identification - an exception to this is asking you to produce your drivers licence when driving.

You can ask anyone claiming to be a police officer to produce their ID - more applicable in plain clothes than uniform.

That said, it's generally sensible to co-operate. Winding them up rarely helps anyone ...

Mike