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Image credit: Tony Daly

Guidelines on taking photographs were released by the Met this week that summarise the spread of police powers to intervene and search cameras, as well as a broader questioning power which could lead to using intimidation, within in this context, as an enforcement tool.

Read the short guidelines here http://www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm.

The guidelines inform:

Officers have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person searched under S44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, provided that the viewing is to determine whether the images contained in the camera or mobile telephone are of a kind, which could be used in connection with terrorism.

And in a wonderfully unambiguous tone, it continues:

It should ordinarily be considered inappropriate to use Section 58a to arrest people photographing police officers in the course of normal policing activities, including protests, as without more, there is no link to terrorism.

There is however nothing preventing officers asking questions of an individual who appears to be taking photographs of someone who is or has been a member of Her Majesty’s Forces (HMF), Intelligence Services or a constable.

An interesting article by photographer Marc Vallée posted on Liberty Central opens up the debate a bit further, calling for public pressure against Section 76 (58a) of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. As “sousveillance”, which turns the camera on the watchers (see current issue of Red Pepper), is slowly being stripped from activists’ hands under anti-terrorism laws that increasingly trump civil liberty claims, the future of peaceful dissent has yet to be settled.

The Policing workshop from the Convention on Modern Liberty held in February drew attention to the vulnerabilities on peaceful individuals brought on by problems of accountability and targeting at the most fundamental levels by police conduct. Revisiting the session again online (streaming vid or by podcast) in light of recent debates is certainly recommended.

Further information on the campaign for changing policing standards and legal reform on the erosion of peaceful dissent is being maintained by Guy Aitchison over at the Our Kingdom blog.