Long Beach Police Chief: we detain photographers, and I don’t have any guidelines for that policy

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Long Beach Police Chief: we detain photographers, and I don’t have any guidelines for that policy, photography is classed with attempts to acquire weaponized smallpox

The Police Chief of Long Beach has confirmed that his department’s policy is to detain photographers who do nothing more than take pictures in public places, and that he neither has, nor plan…

via Boing Boing: http://boingboing.net/2011/08/14/long-beach-police-chief-we-detain-photographers-and-i-dont-have-any-guidelines-for-that-policy-photography-is-classed-with-attempts-to-acquire-weaponized-smallpox.html

McDonnell says that while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer’s subject has “apparent esthetic value,” officers make such judgments “based on their overall training and experience” and will generally approach photographers not engaging in “regular tourist behavior.”