A guest post by Curly who was shocked to become a police suspect after innocently taking pics at a funfair:

This guest post highlights an issue I feel strongly about and and has recently been featured by the media, including the BBC, Amateur Photography, Radio 5 Live, as well as the House of Commons.

Misplaced and irrational fears over terrorism and paedophiles is leading to situations where innocent amateur photographers and professional photo journalists are being detained by police and PCSOs for simply taking pictures in public places. I have recently been in this situation when taking pictures such as the one above. It causes alarm and fear when you know that you have not transgressed any law. I was left confused and angry after thinking that all of my movements had apparently been watched on CCTV, yet despite this an officer of Northumbria Police was still detailed to come and apprehend me. Should fears be allowed to interrupt the good administration of the law? You can read what happened to me here.

There are number of issues confronting us here, and the first that needs to be dealt with is the motive and fear of the individuals who make the judgement call in the first place (to either telephone the police, or to respond to that call and despatch a police officer.) To call the police because another member of the public is taking pictures, legally and openly, leaves me dismayed to say the least. I ask myself: “What has happened to neighbourliness and community spirit when people just don’t have the confidence to come and ask what I am doing?”

I blame the proliferation of CCTV cameras which is leading to a general complacency about reporting real crimes and providing real statements that help police, people assume that CCTV operators will see everything accurately and that therefore everything will be O.K. This is not the case, and real crimes still happen openly in front of CCTV cameras – how do we know? We see the pictures in our newspapers asking: “Do you know this person?” In my case a thorough examination of the evidence seen by CCTV cameras would have led to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to create even the remotest suspicion that crime was being committed or was about to be committed.

Next question, if hundreds of people in a fairground are using pocket digital cameras, or camera phones, why should the man with the Digital SLR arouse more suspicion than the others? If I were a paedophile or a terrorist, why should I want to stick out like a sore thumb? Perversely, if one person objects to being photographed in public, or thinks it’s wrong that children in a fairground might get photographed, have they ever taken the time to object to the hundreds of CCTV cameras that recorded their every movement since leaving the house that morning? Another question for those who are living their lives in fear, have they ever thought that the vast majority of criminals who abuse children were actually well known to their victims? Have they ever thought that they should worry a little less about strangers and a little more about those closest to them?

There is no law which guarantees privacy in public places in this country, yet authorities are becoming more and more ready to stop photographers from using their cameras to record street scenes, even asking them to delete the frames that they have already recorded. A man was recently detained by seven people in Middlesbrough after taking photographs, then released without charge, again as a result of misconstrued fears. If we allow these actions to continue our newspapers, magazines, websites and journals will become as dull as dishwater without photographs to illustrate the content, moreover photographers both professional and amateur will have little to offer future generations when they come to look at how we lived at the beginning of the new millennium.

It is for these reasons that I am supporting the Early Day Motion by Austin Mitchell the MP for Great Grimsby to have Police, PCSOs, security officers and other officials made more aware of the current laws in relation to our rights to take photographs in and from public places, it has now attracted the signatures of 185 other MPs. I am fortunate that my own MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband is a regular reader of my blog and recently wrote to me saying that he had received assurances from Home Office Minister Tony McNulty firmly that photography in public is perfectly legal.

We cannot allow our lives to be ruled by silly fears, nor dictated by officials who are not fully aware of our law, nor can we sit back and let this generation pass by without being accurately recorded for the benefit of future generations. Paedophiles or terrorists should not be carelessly allowed to dictate the agenda!