Legalities of Shooting in a U.S. Post Office?

friz wrote in post #10034348
I would substitute "taking pictures" for "shooting" when talking to the Post Master. Just a thought.

Took me a second, but...

In Sept 2009 this statement was released...now the feds say it is not illegal to photograph federal buildings...

September 2nd, 2009 Tags: Washington DC
By Carlos Miller
"It took four months but the United States Department of Transportation finally responded to a query from the ACLU asking it to clarify its policy on the act of photographing its buildings.

"Turns out, there is no such policy forbidding the photography of DOT buildings in Washington DC.

"The response from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation acted as if it were only an isolated incident in which a security guard was misinformed about the policies regarding photography. It offered an apology for that particular security guard.

"But the truth is, there has been a pattern over several years of DOT security guards forbidding photographers from taking pictures of its buildings.

"Much of it has been documented by photographer Erin McCann, who provided Photography is Not a Crime with the response from the US DOT, which also included a 2004 “special security bulletin” from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding the photography of federal buildings.

"The bulletin makes it clear that there are no restrictions of taking pictures of federal buildings from the outside, especially if you are not standing on federal property.

"The bulletin also states that it is permissible to photograph “building entrances, lobbies, foyers, corridors or auditoriums for news purposes.”

"This, of course, brings up the old debate about who is a journalist and who is not a journalist or what is newsworthy and what is not newsworthy.

"As there is no federal law defining what makes a journalist, so this pretty much makes it acceptable for anybody to take pictures of these areas.

"The bulletin also states that it is permissible to take pictures inside federal buildings as long as permission is obtained; verbal permission for non-commercial photography and written permission for commercial photography.

"The bulletin also encourages security guards to harass approach photographers and conduct 'field interviews' to determine that they are plotting to blow up the building with their cameras."

All of which is irrelevant to the taking of pictures inside a post office, since a post office is not a Federal Building per se, but a building owned by a corporation, the U.S. Postal Service, which can (and does) set its own policies.

Ownership of the U.S. Postal Service is also irrelevant.

20droger wrote in post #10152308
All of which is irrelevant to the taking of pictures inside a post office, since a post office is not a Federal Building per se, but a building owned by a corporation, the U.S. Postal Service, which can (and does) set its own policies.

Ownership of the U.S. Postal Service is also irrelevant.

Which returns us nicely to the "ask nicely for permission from the Postmaster or USPS" which was advised back at the start of the thread.

There is every chance that permission would be granted so long as the photography would not affect the normal workings of the building.

The default position of any petty bureaucrat is always, "No," unless you can quickly demostrate to him how it would be to his career advantage to permit it.

RDKirk wrote in post #10153323
The default position of any petty bureaucrat is always, "No," unless you can quickly demostrate to him how it would be to his career advantage to permit it.

This... unfortunately.

There are many martinets...people who THINK they have authority.

RDKirk wrote in post #10153323
The default position of any CLIENT or BUYER is always, "No," unless you can quickly demostrate to him how it would be of benefit to his IMGAGE or BOTTOM LINE to permit it.

Funny how simply changing a couple words makes this relevant in every day life.

The OP simply needs to go ask "the man" and he might be pleasently suprised!

Or you could pick up a cheap whore downtown and drop him/her off at the postmasters office on your way to the lobby.