Who's in charge here?

Apr 08, 2010 11:19

Yesterday there was a deadly crash on one of our main highways. Photogs showed up and started shooting the scene, public property and all that. The police told them to move along and/or stop shooting. They did. Did they have to?

ethics, advice

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Comments 13

brainstems April 8 2010, 15:40:40 UTC
what country are you in?
if it's the USA i'm pretty sure they didn't have to stop shooting. We don't have to in NY.

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flyinglobster April 8 2010, 15:50:28 UTC
Depends on the circumstances, but generally, if it's a public road and you're not presenting an immediate danger (i.e., there's traffic flying along at 65 mph a lane or two over, or there's a huge fire or something similar), there's no reason a photographer should be booted from the scene.

In my experience, though, cops will ignore the First Amendment, as well as media credential language whenever it's convenient, especially if there's a death involved. State troopers here in NJ are notorious for threatening to arrest photographers for doing their jobs at accident and fire scenes.

The only thing you can do is shoot whatever you can as quickly as possible, leave the scene (no accident is worth getting arrested), then lodge a complaint with the top brass at whatever station/barracks the police were from, and as high up as you can go if it's a state/county police department. Consistently hammering them for ignoring the law they're supposed to be upholding and protecting is the only way to affect any change.

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notodette April 8 2010, 16:02:43 UTC
"Consistently hammering them for ignoring the law they're supposed to be upholding and protecting is the only way to affect any change."

That's what I figured.

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flyinglobster April 8 2010, 16:31:54 UTC
It doesn't hurt to try to prevent situations like this ahead of time, too - it's not always possible, but when there's a change in the chain of command at the local station, it's worth it to sit down with the new head honcho and remind them of that whole Constitution thing.

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flyinglobster April 8 2010, 16:25:38 UTC
Not that it makes an illegal act by police any better, but the one advantage of digital lies in 1s and 0s - unless the cops seize your flash cards and don't give 'em back, the standard deletion or formatting doesn't completely wipe the files. Everything's still there, it just takes a little time to recover 'em.

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notgruntled April 8 2010, 16:53:32 UTC
That's usually an ethical issue to hash out with your editor back at your desk. I don't think most folks would argue that it's unethical to take explicit photos; the issue is whether to publish them. If you know your bosses are going to run the photos, then you might want to avoid the more gruesome shots on principle, but that's likely to get you fired.

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terry_terrible April 8 2010, 18:57:44 UTC
If it's in the USA and they are in "public space" or public property, then yes they have the legal right to keep shooting. As a photographer, I would say it's bad ethics to anyway hinder the cops, their investigation, or generally hinder traffic in an already congested area. Otherwise, do what you have to do to GTS.

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