By Scott Anderson
IV Leader Photographer
The debate continues today: where and at what can
photographers and photojournalists aim their cameras. The conflict draws a
tug-of-war between constitutional rights.
The First Amendment of the Constitution states that Congress
shall make no law or abridging the freedom of speech, nor of the press.
In any case, in the United States, you generally have the
right to take photos of anything while in a public location. Where does this
come into affect when photographing accident scenes for a local newspaper
photographer? Recently a local police officer confiscated my memory card when I
was assigned to a motorcycle vehicle accident at dusk.
When I arrived on the scene, I got permission from two police
officers that I was allowed to take pictures and cover the accident for a local
newspaper. I stayed back out of the way from emergency vehicles. I have been on
many accident scenes to take photos while freelancing for the NewsTribune.
While photographing the scene from 30 yards away, a part-time
police officer approached me and threatened to arrest me if I did not surrender
my memory card. I did not know at the time that this was a fatal accident nor
did I have any photos of the body.
The officer viewed the photos on my camera, and told me I
allegedly had photos of the body. Believe me, though, there were absolutely no
photos of the body!
I felt intimidated and I was not clear about my rights. But I
did feel that something was not right about the situation. I understand that
this was a fatal crash and a great loss of life. However, I was doing my job and
my rights were violated by this officer censoring my photos. I did surrender the
card because I did not know the law. Now, I feel police officers should be
trained in dealing with the press.
The next morning I was called to the station by the chief of
police and together we viewed my photos of the accident scene, and I was
vindicated: there were no body photos and I was given my card back.
I submitted this story online to “yahoo answers” and learned
that there were many similar incidents of what happened to me. I asked for
advice from colleagues and friends, and was told by the NewsTribune chief
photographer Kemp Smith “never surrender the memory card or your camera.”
Smith added, “It is your personal property and the First
Amendment protects your rights.”
I realized how lucky I am to be a photographer in the United
States of America. In some other countries, there are no rights and no
constitutions. People live in fear and oppression.
Some police departments need to educate and properly train
all of their officers so that incidents like this will not occur again.