It is ironic that I come across a story on Independence Day about the police violating a photographer’s right to take pictures of a crime scene. I ran across a story on the KWTV channel 9 web site where an Oklahoma City photographer happened to witness a high speed chase, resulting in a crash. The photographer’s name is Chris Owens of Oklahoma City. Chris pulled over and started taking pictures of the event and was approached by both the Oklahoma City police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP). The officers demand that he stop taking pictures and delete the ones he had already taken or they would take him to jail. The story says that he eventually deleted them when the officer knocked his hat off and got in his face. Chris tells KWTV reporter that he later downloaded some software that allowed him to recover the photos allowing them to finally be retrieved. He filed a complaint with the police on this and demands an apology or he will sue the police. You can watch the video here, courtesy of KWTV.
I have been on record in the past being critical of the media and their coverage of events for their slant but I must agree with them this time. The police are a needed asset to a community and we would be an anarchist state without them. This is an abuse of their authority though. In the United States we have a right to photograph anything we like as long as we are not trespassing on their private property or violating national security. Whether the police like this or not, we have a right to photograph them while they are on duty or off duty with or without their permission as long as we are on public property and not interrupting their crime scene. Mr. Owens was outside the crime scene tape on a public side walk when he took these photos. As much as I can understand the public’s irritation with someone placing a camera on them, this is not a crime.
We Americans not only have the right to photograph our public service agent in public but we have an obligation to do so. I do not believe that all police are abusers of authority but without this ability to catch their actions with photography there would be no way to keep the abusers in check. This right is spelled out in a .pdf file presented by attorney Bert P. Krages. I did not just stumble upon this file, rather I kept a bookmark of a post from Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection blog back in January 2006. Though we disagree on some issues, I must say Thomas makes a good point on this issue.
I love taking pictures though I hardly have time with attending the University of Oklahoma. I do feel that we must protect this right to photography because human nature makes people of authority abuse their power at times and this keeps them in check. I really hope that KWTV and other outlets keep this story in the news when the police do make their apology because people need to know they have the right to photograph police officers while on duty. The media needs to nail this one home so that others will not be intimidated by the authority. If this puts enough pressure on the Oklahoma City police, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, they will be forced to educate their staff on the rights of photographers to take photographs of crime scenes. If he stands his ground, the media will stay interested and this will be instrumental in the education of ordinary citizens.
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