Simon
In the case of the first photographer, he could have been anyone else, but he wasn't. He was a photographer, and it is therefore relevent, if only to show that just because someone has a camera, it does not mean they are as innocent of any and every wrong doing.
Given that should be blatantly obvious, what unfortunately isn't always, is what a photographers motives are. Until Police Officers are recruited for having ESP, or Minority Reports becomes non fiction, photographers will continue to get stopped and asked what they are doing. As a former Policeman, I could always find a reason to conduct a stop on pretty much anyone, all perfectly legally.
In about 60% of cases those encounters went with no problem, in the others, when photog got on his high horse, then it ended badly, for them.
As a photographer, I have been stopped, sometimes with very good reason and asked what I am doing. I have been visited at home by the local Special Branch too, and guess what ALL of those encounters have ended with no problem. Not because I quoted legislation at them, but because I just answered the questions, let them search me, so what, whats the issue? When I put myself in their position, actually, I can see the point, and I accept thats an advantage I have over you, I've seen it from both ends.
Lastly, the PDF is out of date, and wasn't very accurate in the first place. I don't care who wrote it, it was full of errors.
The best, and in reality only advice people need, is to be polite, co operate, and 9999 out of 10000 time you will be on your way carrying on what you were doing within minutes. Being belligerent or waving inaccurate bits of paper, or claiming you have rights isn't going to help anyone. Yes, occasionally, and in relation to the number of people who take photos every day those occasions are very few and far between, Police Officers will get it wrong. Yep, shouldn't happen, but they are human, they carry round a huge amount of information, and photographers are not the only people that sometimes get the wrong end of it. Nut hey, until someone comes up with an infallible human being thats going to continue as well. After all, you make mistakes, as my last paragraph points out, if its ok for you to get it wrong why isn't it for them? More so given that in reality this is such an unimportant aspect of policing.
Lastly, the Met Police didn't issue any such edict. The put out an advertising campaign, that asked people to think about what they saw, people photographing unusual things, people paying for vans or commercial vehicles with cash, both of which can be perfectly innocent, but both can be the opposite. If you would rather people didn't report matters to Police, just because of a 'right' you think you have, then thats your problem, I'd rather they did, because I've picked up bits of bodies when people didn't.
