What the ???

D

ddp

Well-known member
So while I'm out-and-about a few blocks from my house all heck breaks loose with the local police. They are freakin' everywhere. Like 15 in a two block area. Roads blocked off, major upheaval.
Since I'm only blocks from my house I run home and grab one of my cameras and figure maybe I can get some footage for the local news. Seemed innocent enough to me and I was bored.
I get back to the area with camera in hand and start taping the activities. There's a grocery store parking lot behind me with 6 school busses full of kids and surrounded by cops. So I shoot a few seconds of that. Of course the kids get all excited and stick their heads out the window. I'm about 100 feet away.
As I turn to tape some of the other happenings, Mz police woman walks up to me and asks if I'm with a news station. After I say no she, in pissy voice, says "why are you video taping minors?" I reply that I was shooting the happenings to turn into the local station if they wanted to use it, you know an "unfolding story" and all.
Then she got hot and went off about how it's illegal to video tape minors without parental permission, I had to stop immediately, yadda yadda yadda.
This stunned me a bit and I said OK and walked off to film some more road block action.
When I drove off she got my license plate number so not sure what, if anything, happens next. Just freaked my out a little because now someone thinks I'm a perv....

The local station is checking a low rez version of the 3 minutes I took and I explained in detail the issue with the kids and how I don't want to get in trouble for any of this. He assured my they wouldn't use any questionable footage.
I assume I'm ok legally but it definitely bothered me.
Guess I'm not cut out for news work......or getting out of bed before noon...

oh yeah- escpade convicted. Three schools locked down and roads everywhere closed off. They've got the dog teams out searching.
 
Well I just sent off a low rez quick time of it, waiting to hear back.
Actually I was clueless as to they pay for that random stuff, unless of course you're joking.....

The thing is after cop lady labeled me a perv my footage got shakey and lacks any consistancy. I ended up shooting just a bunch of boring footage that looked like I just bought a new camera and was trying to figure out the zoom controls.

I'm just a puss I guess.:crybaby:
 
Luis Caffesse said:
I'm no lawyer, but I believe you had every right to be filmming both the kids and the police.
Someone posted this a long time ago - it's a good reference to have on hand if this happens to you again:

"A Downloadable Flyer Explaining Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography"
Click to expand...

That is good to have on file.
What got me I guess is the fact that I was 100 feet away and the kids were inside the bus and out of view when I started filming. I was in a public place and in complete view of twenty or so officers. It's not like I was a hidden perv camera.
I guess there's a grey area when it comes to unmanned cameras like security or the govenment web cams or like part of the aritcle said "...... Most attempts at restricting photography are done by lower-level security and law enforcement officials acting way beyond their authority. ....."

Since I just have plain bad luck, I wouldn't be surprised if I see my picture on the news tongiht with a "pervert on the prowel" tag under it....
 
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