Imaginary powers of the ‘pretend’ cops
COMMUNITY SUPPORT officers are another thorn in the side of photographers. It appears they have inflated ideas of their own powers under the law. “They’re an absolute nightmare,” Jeff Moore, chairman of the British Press Photographers’ Association, told the Journalist. “If I’ve been asked once, I’ve been asked a thousand times if I’ve got a special permit for working in Westminster. What special permit? You don’t need one!”
Andrew Wiard agrees. “Community support officers haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. They abuse their uniform and give orders they’re not authorised to give. They’re a pain in the neck. In fact they’re a walking argument for properly trained police officers.”
David Hoffman was recently stopped by two CSOs he was photographing near his home. “At first they said it was illegal to photograph CSOs, then they said it was illegal to photograph anyone without their permission, and then that it breached their human rights. None of this is true; they make it up, and mostly they get away with making it up. I kept insisting that they had no rights. They called their sergeant, mumbled something and wandered off.”
In May this year two CSOs stopped a group of film students and their tutor from filming interviews in Camden Market, north London, as part of the course. The CSOs claimed that permission was required from the council to film in public. Worse, they said they had authority under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and took the tutor’s personal details and description.