Happy St. Patrick's Day: Where to Celebrate!
Rock Talk, Vol. XXII
Just waitin for a train
by matt.harding
Photographer's Description:
OK. This is is where I got in a little trouble with the Metro Police. It seems that taking pictures is illegal from the train platform. It is also illegal to be on the platform without a ticket.I ended up getting a formal (written) warning. Everything ended well and I went on my way - straight away from Main Street to avoid the cop. Well the day was very cold and almost no one was on the streets. The next thing I knew I had basically walked a circle around the blocks and was back at the intersection where the platform was. It turned out the cop was still there. And to my surprise he had his bomb sniffing dog out and was sweeping the entire platform. Whether he was doing this because of me or just because he had to, I don't know.
It's a shame that these platforms are off limits for photography. Houston really doesn't have many places for street style photography. So few places that I am tempted to do it again - except from a distance ;-).
How do you feel about public photography. Is there a real reason to keep photographers off platforms, was the cop really doing his job or just hassling a photographer?
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I can understand the security threats that could potentially be an issue. If we want to be really paranoid, we can think that a photographer is taking a photo to help out the terrorists of the world. Maybe the cop had some other information on a threat to public safety that day.
But in all honesty, if we lived life like that we're in trouble. I'm a firm supporter of public photography and I think most of the domestic United States is. Why else would US Weekly and People mag sell so well each week?
I couldn't believe that this was actually a law in Houston, so I looked it up (online). I could find no ordinance that mentioned any restriction on photography here: http://library7.municode.com/default-test/home.htm?infobase=10123&doc_action=whatsnew
Nor could I find anything here: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Search.aspx
It's possible it's a county ordinance, but most likely the officer was just harassing the guy because he could.
Of course, you do need to have a ticket to be on the platform, so he had you here. Discretion was probably warranted.
The reason you can't take photos from the platforms is because they are Metro property and are considered private property. In the US property owners are allowed to make their own rules about whether people are allowed to take photos on their property. The Galleria another example of a place that may seem like a public space, but is in fact private property and photography is not allowed.