A walk around the perimeter of the Olympic site on Saturday revealed the enormous changes that have taken place in East London in preparation for the 2012 Games. It also revealed the unwelcome actions of security personnel employed by G4S on behalf of the London Olmpics.
There were four photo journalists and a video journalist in our group that attempted the walk. Halfway on the journey, near the vehicle entrance to Westfield, where the footpath and cycle suddenly ends without any indication of where one should safely traverse the roads, a security guard began shouting at us as we tried to find a safe way around the site. The guard strode towards us, hand outstretched, attempting to prohibit any photography by anyone of us. We were all carrying cameras, so any attempt to stop photographs or video was be a futile and useless task.
We were all stood on public land, where apparently G4S and private security have no legal rights to interfere with anybody.
After a heated discussion, the area we were discouraged from photographing, the booths and vehicle entrance to a shopping centre (where one assumes and hopes any sensitive material is hidden from public view), became the setting for lengthy discussions over our legal standpoint and the inevitable arrival of the police. During the discussions, we learned that guards actively deter people from taking photographs, despite the fact that they have no legal power to do so. The police, as is now more frequently the case, acted with politeness, civility and professionalism and affirmed our position as law abiding citizens who were entitled to take photographs from public land.
Unfortunately this professionalism is lacking in the frontline of security personnel who make the first point of contact with members of the public (or press).
April 23, 2012 at 1:13 pm |
I think a mass photo session is called for.
April 23, 2012 at 1:50 pm |
Unfortunately more and more ‘security’ company’s are acting in this illegal manner. They appear to have at best no clue as to what the law allows, and at worse are actively disregarding the law, in an effort to threaten and intimidate, photographers, members of the press, and public from carrying out perfectly legal activity.
These people need to be controlled, remember that they are the ones acting illegally and call the police to deal with them, especially if they threaten, abuse, attempt to detain or confiscate equipment.
April 23, 2012 at 2:04 pm |
@Matt I have actually on a couple of occasions resorted to telling the man in the luminous vest that if HE does not stop harrassing ME, I shall call the police, getting out my mobile at the same time.It worked a treat
April 23, 2012 at 2:18 pm |
What is illuminating (and ironic) in the vid, is the security guard taking off his ID armband and replying, when asked why, that he did it so that it cannot be photographed. There is no answer to that.
April 24, 2012 at 5:57 am |
Well written blog. Thumbs up!
April 27, 2012 at 5:38 pm |
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May 16, 2012 at 12:02 am |
The police did not act with politeness, civility and professionalism when they stopped me a few minutes after a brief encounter with G4S security guards in exactly this location in January 2012. They treated me with extreme suspicion and hostility and effected a stop and account on me. They backed down from conducting a stop and search (S.1 PACE “going equipped”) after I became more ‘compliant’.
I had been taking some photos of the entrances to Westfield and to the Olympic Park and had declined to stop doing so when the G4S security guards asked me to. I was not rude or threatening in any way. They did not physically try to prevent me from doing so though, like these ones did. The police recorded my encounter with G4S as ‘evasive and obstructive’. This is an entirely subjective assessment of that encounter, and one to which the police themselves were not privy. Unfortunately I have no video or audio recording of my contact with the security guards or the police.