LONDON (March 14, 2008) - If you're a photographer headed for London any time soon, you should expect an unfriendly welcome from London's Metropolitan Police and possibly from the British citizenry on the streets.
The Met, as the unarmed bobbies are called these days, have launched a five-week campaign - complete with street posters - suggesting that loyal citizens snitch on any photographer they see who seems "odd."
The advertising campaign is part of a three-poster series encouraging citizens to think that people on the street who have more than one cell phone, or are taking pictures, or who come and go from a house that has a lot of activity, could be involved in terrorism.
"The Metropolitan Police Service is asking people to trust their instincts and pass on information about any unusual activity or behaviour to the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline," the announcement of the anti-terrorism campaign said.
"'If you suspect it, report it', is the key message of the new campaign. We want people to look out for the unusual - some activity or behaviour which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in their normal day to day lives. Terrorists live within our communities, making their plans whilst doing everything they can to blend in, and trying not to raise suspicions about their activities," the Met police said.
The posters warning the citizenry about "odd" photographers also ran in several UK newspapers.
In the UK, by law a photographer can take pictures of anything that's in public view (even private property, if it can be seen by standing on public land).
The campaign is only slightly more brazen than New York MTA's "See Something, Say Something" campaign to "engage the eyes and ears" of riders, encouraging MTA customers to keep an eye on photographers and others behaving suspiciously.
Several UK blogs about photojournalism report that British photographers have already been the frequent subject of harassment by police, long before the current poster campaign. In what one writer calls the UK's "culture of paranoia," British cops reportedly misuse Section 44 of the Terrorism Act to illegally detain and search photojournalists.
So photographers in London with multiple cell phones who may be coming and going from busy houses: consider yourselves forewarned.
