HOW Close is too close??

Relatively new to POTN but love it...learning a lot. My question is How close is too close? Let me clear it up a little bit....

I bought a police scanner a few months back and have seen some accidents and fires just riding around. I have not taken any pictures of accidents but sometimes want to but I am afraid. Does anyone know how close i can get to a "scene" without getting yelled at or worse arrested. Is there any laws against being too close to an accident? And i know i can't be right in the way but just curious if anyone has any experience of getting yelled at or even arrested?

Thanks to all!

Don't cross a police line and do what any emergency personnel tell you to do.

Recently an old 100+yr old college (empty building) burned to the ground. There were firemen and police so you could only get so close. My 70-200 sure came in handy!

There are moral and privacy issues that come into play with things such as this. I would not want someone snapping pics of my families misfortunes and posting them, simply put, I would be looking for the photographer. How bad would it be to know someone close to you has died in an accident and that someone whom you don't even know is clicking away with their camera potentially exploiting the tragedy. I say drop it and find something else to shoot.

That advice amounts to "never take photographs of any potential tragedy!"

Fortunately, it's our right to take pictures of events in public places if we so choose.

I think The Photographer's Right is an excellent document to print and keep copies in your camera bag at all times.

Not saying you don't have a right. You do however need to be respectable in what and how you shoot such pictures. How would you feel if you just crashed, your child is flown away and 2 days later when he/she is in the pediatric ICU perhaps still lingering between life and death you stumble upon pictures that someone felt compelled to plaster all over the net. Not only that but you know there will always be smug comments to follow. This has happened not to far long ago and it caused quite a commotion. But, like you said, you have the right to snap what you want. Not arguing, just wanted to make sure all angles of the original question are noted.

This is not about "pasting pictures all over the net."

It's about the legality of taking photographs. Let's keep it on that topic.

If its off topic then the mods can delete it if necessary. The "yelling", as referred to in the OP, could happen if the people involved don't appreciate it. Nuff said, moving on.

Phil Light wrote in post #5741159
I think The Photographer's Right is an excellent document to print and keep copies in your camera bag at all times.

good knowledge in there...that answered most of the legal parts. Others are saying that many people post harmful pictures of loved ones all over the internet and that may be true but it is going away from what i wanted to focus on.

I wanted to focus on news worthy material that isnt too shameful to the photographer himself....i hope you get what i am saying and i hope im not rambling but i would like to keep this going.

Anyone have any experiences with the law lately?

As I work in law enforcement, let me just add that while you can take pictures if you want to, you have to be careful where you are relative to the scene. Do not, under any circumstances, cross a police line that has been strung up. Also, bear in mind that there might be more than one line, so even if you see a line of yellow tape, and then a second line of yellow tape closer to the scene, do not cross the first one to get to the second one. Basically, do not cross any tape that has been strung up to mark the scene.

That being said, you might be asked to leave or move for safety reasons. Even if you aren't concerned about your own safety, we are. You might want to argue that you can stand anywhere you want, but that's not entirely true, and besides, that's not the best time to start that argument. We have a job to do, and if we believe you are preventing us from doing our job because we have to stay focused on you, we will help you leave. So, if you are asked to leave or step back, it is best to do so. You most likely do not know everything that's going on, and the last thing we need is another victim because the shooter we were trying to capture decided to shoot at you and your camera.

If you feel you have been violated or treated unfairly, you should (maybe even must) report your concern to the law enforcement agency that had you leave. I am not under any circumstance suggesting that someone's rights to be in a public place should be violated, but I am suggesting that there is a better place to register your complaint than on the scene of a crime.

One last thing to consider as you originally mentioned accidents (although this applies to any scene)... you almost certainly do not know where the scene begins and ends when there is no crime scene tape strung up, as on an accident scene. If you start walking around trying to get "the picture" you run the risk of entering an area that needs to be protected. Trust me when I say that you don't want to find yourself inside of a scene.

Phew... so, after all of that, let's see if I can sum this up:

1. Do not cross crime scene lines, ever.
   
2. Do not try and get too close for safety reasons.
   
3. Listen to the police when they ask (or tell) you to leave or move back.
   
4. Bear in mind that scenes may not be clearly marked but that doesn't mean you can just walk wherever you want as you may be damaging evidence (this is most applicable to crash scenes).
   
5. If you feel your rights have been violated, do not argue your rights on the scene of a crime. Instead, go to the law enforcement agency in question and formally register your complaint.
   

Very objective and fair perspective on this issue, infoline. While advocating our rights, the card-carrying "it's my right" protectionists often insist upon their rights over good reason and go too far, in the interests of 'civil liberties'.

Wilt wrote in post #5741422
Very objective and fair perspective on this issue, infoline. While advocating our rights, the card-carrying "it's my right" protectionists often insist upon their rights over good reason and go too far, in the interests of 'civil liberties'.

Thanks. I have had to work many different scenes with many different types of photographers and videographers, and I find that as long as all of us respect the jobs that all of us have to do, we can all get along. I recently worked the scene of a shooting were the camera operators for three major news agencies were right up against the crime scene tape. They never made any effort to cross, never got in the way, and as a result, we never gave them any grief for doing their job. We did our thing, and they did theirs, and at no point was there any trouble for anyone.

I have been on other scenes where we had to set up a "media staging area" because news crews got so out of hand that we couldn't move around to do our job. I would much rather just leave news crews alone, but at times, their insistence on getting "the shot" confuses commons sense, and as a result we have to set up these safety areas for them to set up their gear.

Great posts, ifonline. Thanks.

jonnythan wrote in post #5741962
Great posts, ifonline. Thanks.

No problem. I love my job, but that doesn't mean I (or anyone else in law enforcement) should act like a fool in situations like this. All too often it is seen as us (law enforcement) versus them (the media), when in reality we need to be working together.

Granted, I'm not suggesting we all sit around the campfire singing folk songs, but I mean, really... there's no reason for anyone to get bent out of shape over this stuff, you know?