Police are stopping more London photographers from taking photographs under the anti-Terror Laws than ever before, it was reported this week.
Among the victims is Reuben Powell, a white, middle-aged, middle-class artist, who has been photographing and drawing life around the capital's Elephant & Castle for 25 years, was arrested last week.
Photographing the old HMSO print works close to the local police station was an security risk, he was told.
"The car skidded to a halt like something out of Starsky & Hutch and this officer jumped out very dramatically and said 'what are you doing?' I told him I was photographing the building and he said he was going to search me under the Anti-Terrorism Act," he reportedly recalled.
He was only let out after being locked up in a cell for five hours following the intervention of the local MP, Simon Hughes. By then he had had his genetic material stored permanently on the DNA database.
Powell's stoppage is down to Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 along with over-eager officials who believe that photography in a public area is somehow against the law.
The seriousness of the situation has prompted MP and keen photographer Austin Mitchell, chairman of the Parliamentary All-Party Photography Group, to table an early day motion last March deploring the "officious interference or unjustified suspicion" facing camera enthusiasts around public buildings.
The Labour MP is now calling for a photography code for officers so that snappers can continue going about their rightful business.
According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, the law is straightforward.
"Police officers may not prevent someone from taking a photograph in public unless they suspect criminal or terrorist intent. Their powers are strictly regulated by law and once an image has been recorded, the police have no power to delete or confiscate it without a court order. This applies equally to members of the media seeking to record images, who do not need a permit to photograph or film in public places," a spokeswoman said.
Jeremy Dear, the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said: "It's time the police realised that taking photographs doesn't automatically mean you're a terrorist. Every month the NUJ finds itself dealing with yet more cases of officers infringing journalistic freedoms and, very often, exceeding their legal powers.
"Even the police's own guidance makes it clear that there's nothing in the Terrorism Act that can be used to prohibit the taking of photos in a public place. The authorities have got to do more to ensure that those people charged with upholding the law don't keep on contravening it by trampling over well-established civil liberties."