By law we cannot arrest someone just because he may call a cop a pig. We cannot arrest someone because he asks for a name or a badge or takes a picture.

-- Lorenzo Casanova, Deputy Police Commissioner, NYPD. [1]

We know that NYPD officers harass photographers for taking pictures of stuff that the police decide is "sensitive." But what if police officers decide that they themselves are the "sensitive" stuff?

To see an example of what can happen when the police take umbrage at being videotaped, see this WCBS story showing an NYPD official striking a man who was videotaping the police.

Can the police simply decide that it is illegal for you to to videotape them? Do you have the right to take pictures of police officers at work in public places? Do you have even the limited right to stand around and gawk at the police when they stop someone?

It turns out that the rights of "onlookers" at police incidents, including photographers, in New York City have already been recognized in federal court in a ruling that is still in effect today.

In the 1970s a class action lawsuit, Black v. Codd, was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of reporters, photographers and onlookers who had been harassed, assaulted and/or arrested in the vicinity of police officers at work. The five plaintiffs were a diverse group: a WINS radio journalist; an Amsterdam News reporter; two members of the National Caucus of Labor Committees, a far Right LaRoucheite group; and a person identified by The New York Times only as a "bookkeeper."

NYCLU attorney Paul Chevigny stated in court papers that between 1970 and 1973, 259 people had been "subjected to some sanction, such as arrest, threats or physical abuse, because of criticism (or implied criticism, as by taking a photograph or writing down a shield number) of a police officer, including going to the precinct to make a complaint." [2]

In 1977 the NYPD was forced to agree that onlookers at incidents where the police are stopping people or making arrests are permitted to stay nearby without being subject to harassment or arrest. The federal court ordered that this understanding be incorporated into the NYPD Patrol Guide, the internal rulebook about how to be a street cop. (It appears in section 208-03.)

The federal consent decree in Black v. Codd reads in part:

... when a person (or persons) is detained, stopped or arrested in public areas, a person or persons not involved in the conduct for which the person is stopped or arrested may remain in the vicinity of the stop or arrest as an onlooker or onlookers ...

None of the following constitutes probable cause for arrest or detention of an onlooker unless the safety of officers or other persons is directly endangered or the officer reasonably believes they are endangered or the law is otherwise violated:

(a) Speech alone, even though crude and vulgar;
(b) Requesting and making notes of shield numbers or names of officers;
(c) Taking photographs;
(d) Remaining in the vicinity of the stop or arrest.

What does this mean out on the street? Explained in the forthright language of Lorenzo Casanova, the Deputy Police Commissioner in 1977, "By law we cannot arrest someone just because he may call a cop a pig. We cannot arrest someone because he asks for a name or a badge or takes a picture." [3]

Apart from Black v. Codd, the Patrol Guide warns against interfering with photographers:

Members of the service will not interfere with the video taping or photographing of incidents in public places. Intentional interference such as blocking or obstructing cameras or harassing the photographer constitutes censorship.

-- NYPD Patrol Guide, section 116-53 [4]

In other words, a police officer's fear of criticism, without evidence of a crime, is simply not a sufficient basis to harass or arrest someone. And NYPD's own rules for police officers recognize that interfering with cameras is censorship.

The upshot is: taking photographs or shooting video on the streets in the United States of America is a constitutionally protected activity. That includes taking pictures of New York's Finest.