Photography Is Not a Crime (PINAC, published under the trade name PINAC News), is an organization and news

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

that focuses on rights of

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

s who photograph and film police and other government organizations in the United States. It was founded in 2007 following the arrest of its creator, Carlos Miller, a veteran news reporter and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

, and incorporated in June 2014 as PINAC Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation.

Origin

In early 2007, Miller was on assignment for an article about the Biscayne Boulevard area of

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. He observed five

police officers A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

interviewing an individual and began to take photographs. The officers asked Miller to move on, but he refused, informing them that he was on public property, where he held the right to photograph. The officers then arrested him for numerous

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...

offenses, including resisting arrest. Miller claims he was beaten by the officers during his arrest. Miller created the blog as a result of his arrest, the

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

and

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...

violations by the

Miami Police Department The Miami Police Department (MPD), also known as the City of Miami Police Department, is a full-service municipal law enforcement agency serving Miami, Florida. MPD is the largest municipal police department in Florida. MPD officers are distingu ...

, and his desire to educate the public on the issue of the right of Americans to document the activities of public officials in the performance of their duties.

First Amendment issues

PINAC focuses on

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

issues that intersect with governmental oppression of those rights, normally by police officers. It also gives civilians tips on how to interact with the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

and assert their constitutionally protected rights.

General arrests

A large number of police departments have harassed or made arrests of civilian photographers for charges such as obstruction and making terror threats.

Wiretapping arrests

PINAC has covered a number of cases during which police officers have misused wiretapping laws against civilians such as

Anthony Graber Anthony Graber is an American who was charged, in 2010, with felony violation of Maryland wiretapping law for undisclosed recording of his roadside receipt of a speeding ticket from a plainclothes police officer. If convicted, he would have faced ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Graber was arrested after he posted a video of a police contact on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

.Annys Shin,
From YouTube to your local court; Video of traffic stop sparks debate on whether police are twisting Md. wiretap laws
', , June 16, 2010, at A1.

Homeland security

In addition, there have been numerous examples in which police or security officers have erroneously told civilians that filming or taking pictures of a particular building is unlawful and a violation, due to either

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

homeland security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...

reasons. Examples covered in the blog include a police officer advising that photographing the National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch was prohibited, and similar examples involving photographing an art exhibit in downtown

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, and a train station in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Police coverup

PINAC has documented a number of cases in which police officers seized cameras and cell phones or deleted photographs or video, apparently in an effort to cover up police misconduct, such as the unjustified killing of

Oscar Grant Oscar Grant III was a 22-year-old African-American man who was killed in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid ...

by BART police officers. In some cases, police have been accused of tampering with evidence by deleting photographs or videos. For example, in Broward County, an off-duty deputy sheriff pulled over a motorist, and then illegally seized and destroyed her cell phone in an attempt to get rid of the video that she had taken of police misconduct. On August 2, 2021, five Miami Beach police officers were charged with using excessive force against a bystander who recorded video of the officers beating a handcuffed suspect.

Media recognition

General media

The blog has been featured or discussed in a number of mainstream publications, ranging from ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. PINAC has also been mentioned in ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' and the ''

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'', among others. The blog made national news when Andrew Meyer joined as a staff writer in 2014.

Law reviews and journals

The blog has also been cited in

law reviews A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pro ...

. It has appeared in the '' Tennessee Law Review'', the ''

Quinnipiac Law Review Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.'' Anishinaabe language, Ojibwe: ''Anishinaabeg'' and Blackfoot language, Blackfoot: ''Niitsítapi''), a Quiripi language, Quiripi-speaking Native Americans i ...

'', and the '' University of Pennsylvania Law Review''.Seth F. Kreimer,
Pervasive Image Capture and the First Amendment: Memory, Discourse, and the Right to Record
', 159 335 (2011).

Footnotes

References

External links

Official website
– PINAC News website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Photography Is Not a Crime 2007 establishments in the United States American journalism organizations American political blogs Freedom of the press Internet properties established in 2007 Photojournalism organizations Police brutality in the United States Police misconduct in the United States Political repression in the United States