Encounter with the cops and a grilling by them

What an end to a great day. What started by being a nice planned walk along the Woods in the Lido in Riuslip just turned absolutely sour with the grilling I just had by two cops.

I had decided to walk in the lido today instead of my usual run with the Hillingdon running club people as I am healing a calf injury, so what better than put my DA*60-250 to test again to get some shots of wildlife that its full of.

Half hour in my journey while stopped to try to snap some hoverflies with the camera attached to my tripod I suddenly see a male and female cop running towards me and soon they approached the male cop tells me that they had had a complaint from a member of the public that a person with a camera and long lens looking suspicious was trying to take pictures of kids that were playing in the nearby sands.
My first reaction was of astonishment and soon I got my act together I turned to them to ask if it was forbidden to take photos in the woods. They said that it wasn't and they were just there because there was a complaint and if I didn't mind showing them the images that I had taken while there. Obviously I didn't mind and showed them the few images of the hoverfly taken and in the meantime they wanted my details. I handed them my driving license and the male cop walked a few meters away and radioed to their base to confirm my details. During all that time the female cop kept on asking those typical cop questions "what do I do with the images" whether I sell them" and whether I come to the woods usually etc etc. Suffice to say that I am quite acquainted with these kind of questions having msyelf been on the receiving end a few times already, probably more than I would like even to remember. The cop approaches me and gives me back my id and says everything is ok and like he said before, they were not stopping me to take photos.

I turned to them and asked what if I had taken a landscape image of the area which I was in fact planning to do within a couple of hours as the sun set a bit more, and they would have found it in my camera, what would have been the situation then? As it was all they found was a mug shot of my running friend Andy which I had taken a few minutes before walking into the woods. They said they wouldn't have done anything and I would have carried out as normal. And probably it was someone being over protective that's why they called the cops.

For goodness sake, I go to this place several times with my kids, and I told them that there is a very thin line between being cautious and protective and overdoing it. Had someone seen me pointing the lens in a suspicious way or if I had done something to arouse suspicion then I would understand, but as it was there was nothing except just that someone had seen me with a DSLR camera with an unusual lens. So is this going to happen everytime I walk into the woods with the camera? I live 200 yards across the woods and I go often there to catch some birds.
They just said that as it was there was nothing stopping me to go into the woods and take pictures and it was unfortunate that someone called them so they had to check.

Besides being embarrassing people passing by and looking at two cops talking to me and clearly checking my camera etc, many people there certainly knew me from the neighbourhood, this was so embarrassing, unbelievably sad. All that time the runners from the club were passing by and all of them know me from the club, kids and ladies all going through that route and looking at these two cops giving me the grilling.
This was really sad.
They just finished the talk by telling me that I was free to go and they were not stopping me taking pictures if I wanted to.

Needless to say that I I just packed my stuff and walked back to the club absolutely saddened with the situation, got into my car and just drove home.

"Nil illigitimus carborundum" Almin. Its a latin barstardisation meaning "don't let the bastards grind you down". You were in a public place and acquitted yourself perfectly.

Don't let this experience stop you from pursuing your hobby. If you do, they've won.

Thanks for that Peter.
I won't let the situation change my ways and pursue my hobby that I have been enjoying to the max. I will ride this out.

I take things extremely personally and certain things do shake me a lot. I was absolutely furious, although controlled and not making a big fuss verbally over it, but I definitely wanted them to see that its not a nice feeling being innocent and being grilled like that in the presence of so many people.

Strange thing is while driving back home I suddenly remembered even who might have called the cops. A woman who was walking her dog passed by me and immediately I noticed her talking on the phone. Didn't give much notice to it at first but then 15 minutes later i noticed same woman passing by again with the dog and had a male escort with her, and I remember thinking, how strange, that route I saw her pass usually would have taken her at least 40 minutes to make a full circle and she would be coming back on the opposite direction, but that second time within that 15 minutes I saw her again coming from behind me, which had been the first time, and my first thought was, hmmm how come she passed by me in that direction and now she is again coming from the same side, definitely she must have crossed the woods soon she was out of my sight and then took the same trail again but this time with a male escort probably to pin my position again.

Absolute paranoia. There is a limit to caution and protection but this is way beyond any comprehension. Absolute paranoia.

Ime behind Mannesty's Comment all the way.

Unfortunatly its the world we now live in that people are suspicious and over react alot.

Sod em

Don't let them grind you down Amin. Like you say, you did nothing wrong; it's just an unfortunate fact of life that there are some folks out there who see danger in every situation and suspicion in every stranger. At the end of the day those people live sad lives and we should really pity them.

The police are compelled to investigate every time one of these people asks them to jump, but I'd be willing to bet they find these people far more of a hassle than you do as I'd also be willing to bet it's the same ones calling on them time-after-time.

You'll probably find your friends (the ones who saw you) will be sympathetic and it'll even give you a story to dine out on. Just don't let the actions of one small-minded individual stop you from enjoying what you want to do - if you do then they win and we don't want that do we?

Peter said the same thing but far more succinctly.

Sounds to me like you behaved well, the police in fact behaved well and were just ensuring that the complainant's concerns could be put to rest. The only chump was the complainant.

So, given the way you responded I'd say you can pat yourself on the back and carry on enjoying taking the photographs. After all the police did keep on reassuring you that you weren't in any way prevented from taking photographs and they were just following through on a call.

Not a pleasant experience at all though.

Mike

True Hefty, we definitely do not want to let them get one over us. Sad situation but I will ride this off.
Strange you even mention that my friends at the running club would be sympathetic. When I came back obviously I was eager to tell the ones that were still in the club what had happened and one of them works for child protection agency in the borough. How ironic that huh? . He turned to me and said himself that this paranoia against any person with a camera in hand and worse still if it looks professional is a phenomenon that has been pretty common nowadays. And in his experience working with the Scotland Yard the ones who commit these hideous crimes do not usually do it in this manner.
Sorry forgot to add that the chaps in the club including Brian (the guy from the child protection agency) were extremely sympathetic with me . That softened the aftermath blow that I came back with

Scary

Really feel sorry for you Amin; I dont blame the police for acting on a complaint, you handled that well - it just saddens me what the public can be like in todays world.

Just because you have a DSLR and a long lens you are automatically up to no good - it's pathetic.

Sorry, but this has really annoyed me. I know if I had been in your situation, i'd have gone balistic with them (not the right thing to do!!!!) and suggest they pursue a charge of wasting police time if they had her details.

I doubt they ever did Amin, for the same reason I doubt any self-respecting "terrorist" goes around shooting buildings with a huge SLR slung around his neck. It stands to reason that if you really were up to no good then you'd be a lot more subtle about it - unfortunately some folk are just too dim to understand that very basic principle.

Amin, you could turn this whole incident around to rationalise it better. You have children, I've seen your photo's of them. If your kids were playing in that same park and somebody was taking images of them for whatever reason, you might thank that same person for calling the police.

Those uniforms were doing their job. They had received some 'intelligence' (complaint) and they were compelled to investigate. You would want hem to do exactly the same thing if your kids were involved.

No harm done at the end of the day.

Amin,

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago, I was walking past my local park; my daughter's school (all girls) were having the entire school role photographed, a grandstand had been built but best of all the photographer was shooting on large format so I took a snap from the road of a man with his head under a dark cloth with OOF subject behind. Thought no more of it and walked on. Someone said a man was hiding in the bushes taking pictures, the truth was I was behind a hedge standing in a main road.

The police were called but couldn't find me.

Later when identified I was called by the deputy head who informed me I had broken the data protection act amongst other things - all a load of utter tosh and I'm thinking, I'm paying more that £10000 a year for this. Another parent who is a QC told me that shool's behaviour was actionable but we thought that the least said the sooner mended.

These experiences are totally sickening and as you say embarassing. Hopefully you'll soon be able to laugh it off and at least the cops were being sensible, if someone complains then they have to act except when your house is being burgled and nobody turns up, of course.

I've been taking pictures professionaly sinc 1976 or thereabouts and I've only started carrying a Press Card in the last couple of years, why?

Hopefully your neighbours and the other runners who know you will realise you were doing nothing wrong, and will sympathise with you when you tell your tale.
There are always some over zealous busybodies about - they like to feel important by reporting innocent people. As your friend said the ones who commit the crimes don't behave like you were.

Whilst I'm all for social control and vigilance, something which generally is lacking today, people seem to over react sometimes. The newspapers are partly to blame for this - there are no more perverts around now than when I was a child in the 60s, but to read the rags nowadays you'd think every man was a potential child rapist, especially when armed with a camera. A very sad situation as you say.

Oh I did Peter. That's the reason I am annoyed. And I expressed it word by word my thoughts on this to the cops.
First of all I am not annoyed at the cops at all. Its with the person who called the cops. I have lots of great friends in the blue and I can't wait to have a go teasing them about this and telling them that this is how they waste the taxpayers money , chasing the innocent photographers (just joking ).

I turned to the cops and told them precisely what you just mentioned. I have two kids and would like people to be alert and call the cops if they saw something suspicious. But there is a fine line and that line is not obscure. Pretty easy to estabilish.
I told them that if someone had seen me pointing the camera to the group or taking a suspicious shot then I would understand. The person who called should have taken some time and observed me. But they didn't do it, because if they had done they would have seen that I was all the time with the tripod chasing the bleeming hoverfly, and on certain occasions stopped to chat with couple of our club runners etc.

The point was that they saw someone with a big camera and tripod, kids in the vicinity, an unshaven guy with track suit and a T shirt, and off they went assuming he is a after no good.