Ben Anderson's Urban Motion blog 'Account for Presence' reports some innocuous amateur street photography that ended in the following bizarre conversation with PCSO's. He had already deleted the image of a woman who had objected to his photography and called the PCSO's over - full details of the run-up are at the blog along with a nice trophy form from the encounter:
PCSO: “Why are you here, What are you doing, Who are you with?”
TOG: “I’m an amateur photographer and am interested in street photography, we’re just experimenting with flash lighting in the street”
PCSO: “Who are you taking the pictures for?”
TOG: “Myself, it’s my hobby”
PCSO: “You’ll have to delete them”
TOG: “Well I don’t have to, but I already did, I showed the woman that I had”
PCSO: “Show me your camera so I can check”
TOG: “I don’t legally have to do that and I already explained that I showed the lady I had deleted them”
PCSO: “In that case I’m issuing you with a stop and search”
ME: “On what legal grounds”
PCSO: “Section 1 of PACE” - Section 1 of PACE pertains to searching those suspected of committing a crime for stolen or prohibited articles.
TOG: “I don’t understand why you should do that I’m perfectly within my rights to not allow you to search me”
PCSO: “Well, I could detain you for 20 minutes and have you taken to the station for a proper search”
TOG: “Look, here I’ll show you, there’s no point in this getting out of hand, but I am correct about my rights, here see this - produces leaflet covering photographers rights”
PCSO “(dismisses leaflet)What you’ve been doing could be seen as anti social behaviour, you’ve got to be really careful taking photos in a public place, buildings and stuff are ok, but not people”
ME: “Can we have a copy of the forms please”PCSO: “(gives copies)”
ME: “GREY HAIR!”
Anti-social behaviour is a new one.
PCSO's don't have power of arrest, nor power of stop and search unless supervised by a police officer. PACE would allow search of the camera once the photographer had been arrested for antisocial behaviour by a policeman, but not before. PCSO's can only issue fixed penalty notices for antisocial behaviour. See http://www.pcsos-national.co.uk/page3.html
PCSO's do have the power to require name and address for specific offences including antisocial behaviour but nowhere does this report say that the photographer was asked for and refused to give his name.
As reported, the PCSO was exceeding their legal authority.
Photorights admin
You caused distress to the woman by taking photos of her, obviously you did otherwise she wouldn't have called the pcso's over, therefore they had every right to require your name by law. Failure to provide your name and address would be a criminal offence.
PCSOs have no power to search for prohibited articles only alcohol and tobacco unless in company with a Constable..
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