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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, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...
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 ...
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 coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
. He observed five police officers 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 Resisting arrest, or simply resisting, is an illegal act of a suspected criminal either fleeing, threatening, assaulting, or providing a fake ID to a police officer during arrest. In most cases, the person responsible for resisting arrest is crimi ...
. 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 media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerc ...
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 right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
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 reco ...
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 Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
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 Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...
laws against civilians such as Anthony Graber in
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 t ...
. Graber was arrested after he posted a video of a police contact on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...
.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 att ...
or
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" t ...
reasons. Examples covered in the blog include a police officer advising that photographing the National Laboratory at the
University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febr ...
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 Police misconduct refers to inappropriate conduct and illegal actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Types of misconduct include among others: coerced false confession, intimidation, false arrest, false impri ...
, such as the unjustified killing of Oscar Grant by
BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
police officers. In some cases, police have been accused of tampering with evidence by deleting photographs or videos. For example, in
Broward County Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 m ...
, 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 magazine, 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 H ...
'' 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 n ...
''. 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 ''Tennessee Law Review'' began in 1922 and is published by the Tennessee Law Review Association which is based within the University of Tennessee College of Law The University of Tennessee College of Law is the law school of the University of Ten ...
'', the '' Quinnipiac Law Review'', and the ''
University of Pennsylvania Law Review The ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been publishe ...
''.Seth F. Kreimer,
Pervasive Image Capture and the First Amendment: Memory, Discourse, and the Right to Record
', 159 335 (2011).


See also

*
Chilling effect In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
* First Amendment audits * Freedom of the press in the United States *
Police accountability Police accountability involves holding both individual police officers, as well as law enforcement agencies responsible for effectively delivering basic services of crime control and maintaining order, while treating individuals fairly and with ...


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