One of the country's leading architectural photographers was apprehended by City of London police under terrorism laws today while photographing the 300-year old spire of Sir Christopher Wren's Christ Church for a personal project.Grant Smith, who has 25 years experience documenting buildings by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, was stopped by a squad of seven officers who pulled up in three cars and a riot van and searched his belongings under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allows police to stop and search anyone without need for suspicion in a designated area.
One of the country's leading architectural photographers was apprehended by City of London police under terrorism laws today while photographing the 300-year old spire of Sir Christopher Wren's Christ Church for a personal project.
Grant Smith, who has 25 years experience documenting buildings by Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, was stopped by a squad of seven officers who pulled up in three cars and a riot van and searched his belongings under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allows police to stop and search anyone without need for suspicion in a designated area.
Last week, Jeff Overs, a BBC photographer, was stopped under counter-terrorist laws for taking pictures not of a secret military establishment, or a nuclear power station, but of St Paul's Cathedral at sunset.
In the summer, Alex Turner, another amateur photographer, was arrested after he took pictures of Mick's Plaice, a fish and chip shop in Chatham, Kent, evidently a building of great strategic importance to the jihadi godfathers in Waziristan. A few days ago, Jerome Taylor was stopped while taking pictures of the House of Commons from the South Bank of the Thames. "For 10 minutes," he recalled, "I was questioned about my evening and asked to give my height, name, address and ethnicity - all of which were recorded in a form that will now be held at the nearest police station for the next year." The reason he had been stopped was also noted: "Using a camera and tripod next to Westminster Bridge."
the only area that has been revealed are all railway stations within the UK.
Which may sound like a joke, but when trainspotters - who are about as dangerous a rained-on khaki bobble hat - start complaining about regular harassment, policing is seriously broken.
I didn't make this up. There was an ancient law in NYC prohibiting photography in subway stations. Nobody took any notice of it, until some newspaper published pictures of exposed wiring in a station, and the city filed changes. The main outcome was that the law was changed, but after 9/11 they quickly started trying to figure out how to bring it back.
I presume that any self-respecting terrorist will take pictures with his phone, rather than doing something more obvious like these photographers have been doing. They'll just have to prohibit using your phone near a train station, I guess.
