D.C. Metro Photo Rules

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WhoozOn1st

WhoozOn1st

Engineer
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Joined
Mar 21, 2007
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4,281
Location
Southern California
I'm planning a Smithsonian museum crawl for early 2008. Flying there and back, no Amtrak, but I'll be riding the Metrorail (no buses if I can help it) heavily and daily.

My e-mails to the agency, requesting photography policy guidance, have gone unanswered, so I'm wondering if anybody out there either knows or has a fair idea of what to expect. Don't wanna get ticketed or hauled away for running afoul of rules they won't tell me about. Once spent almost an hour talking my way out of being arrested for taking video without a permit on a Metro North platform. It hadn't occurred to me that a permit might be necessary, and that was pre-9/11.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Ask four people and you will probably get five answers. There may be a written policy and there may not be one. The one they have may be constitutionally unenforcable but that won't necessarily stop them from trying. Remember, this is DC. The home base of silly paranoia and government ineptitude beyond belief. You also have multiple overlapping police jurisdictions that may have policies and rules that are in conflict with each other.

You have:

District of Columbia city police force

WMATA police force

National Capital Police

multiple private security forces and rent-a-cops

If you go across the river, then you have

National Park police in Arlington Cementary

Arlington County Police

Alexandria City Police

Airport Police at National Airport

etc, etc,

This area has the higest percentage of law enforcement to population of any place in the country, by far.

It also has the highest percentage of lawyers of any place in the country.

It also has a very high crime rate.

It also has some of the most severe gun-control laws.

I leave conclusions to the readers.
 
According to NYC Subway.org, photography is allowed, with some restrictions. The linked above also provides a link to a 182 page (!) document, which supposedly somehwere contains photography regulations.
 
Thanks guys. Each piece of info helps form a larger whole:

Tom, I'll print that document and carry it myself.

AmtrakCrescent20, I'll print that NYCSubway.org. deal too. I was on the spot in November, 2004 when there was a D.C. Metro wreck - the one in which a train rolled backwards downgrade and hit a stopped train in a station. A major mess, but nobody seriously injured. Saw the story on local TV and walked about a mile in the rain to see. Got one bad pic before being surrounded by Metro cops. I think the only thing that kept me out of handcuffs was that the main guy noticed my Pacific Electric interurban sweatshirt (which he thought was Southern Pacific) and turned out to be a sympathetic railfan himself.

And Mr. Harris, I have a little experience with the myriad D.C. cop agencies. First time ever in D.C. I was taking pics of the Smithsonian castle when cops yelled at me. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Because I had already walked past them I thought they were yelling at somebody else, and kept setting up my shots. Then they ran around in front of me, stopped me in my tracks, and again demanded to know what I was doing. "I'm taking pictures of the Smithsonian." "WHY!" "Because I'm a tourist. I'm visiting from California. Tourists take pictures of the sights, you know. It's what we do." This seemed to confuse them. "Welllllll, okay. But you better be prepared to show ID wherever you go." "Sure!" Later the same day I was up by the Capitol, and found two cops sleeping in an SUV in front of one of those heavy-duty pop-up street barricades, windows open. On a stupid whim I slapped the hood and yelled "PIZZA!" The cops woke up, grabbed for their wallets, realized they'd been had, and got really hostile. I apologized for the bad practical joke, and said they must get really bored sitting in one place all day waiting for Osama bin Laden to show up. That didn't go over well either, and they threatened to take me in, even though they never made a move to open the doors of the SUV. Just jawboning me in a threatening way.

THEN, of all things, a Domino's car showed up with a pizza for them. I had unwittingly hit the nail on the head!!

The cops' attitude - no idea which agency; a cop is a cop is a cop to me - miraculously softened when I whipped out my own wallet and paid for their pizza.
 
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That's why I no longer have any desire to visit Washington, DC.

As fun a city as it is to visit, I have no desire to deal with the fake but "visible" security and the expected harassment that I'd probably get just trying to take a picture of anything.
 
WhoozOn1st999 said:
Later the same day I was up by the Capitol, and found two cops sleeping in an SUV in front of one of those heavy-duty pop-up street barricades, windows open. On a stupid whim I slapped the hood and yelled "PIZZA!" The cops woke up, grabbed for their wallets, realized they'd been had, and got really hostile. I apologized for the bad practical joke, and said they must get really bored sitting in one place all day waiting for Osama bin Laden to show up. That didn't go over well either, and they threatened to take me in, even though they never made a move to open the doors of the SUV. Just jawboning me in a threatening way.
THEN, of all things, a Domino's car showed up with a pizza for them. I had unwittingly hit the nail on the head!!
Click to expand...
Among the Best...Cop...Stories...Ever!

:lol:
 
Seriously, though, it's getting like that everywhere, not just DC.

Amateurs, IMO, have to develop the old news photographer's attitude of "shoot first, answer questions later." I think as long as one avoids using tripods in DC, though, you're okay. The Fuzz in DC gets antsy about tripods. Perhaps Rafi might chime in a bit here, as his office is on Capitol Hill.

If confronted by cops, be nice. Tell the truth. They will respect you for it. Do not attempt to escalate things; they can detain you. But don't let the security stuff be an excuse for not trying to take some pictures. You have rights as well.
 
MrFSS said:
gswager said:
You're very brave to make fun of them.
Click to expand...
Not exactly the word I was thinking, but close enough, I guess.
Click to expand...
Not the word I would use either. But by that time in my monthlong Amtrak loop around the nation (2004) I was heartily fed up with being hassled about photography for stated reasons that I considered, and still consider, to be illegitimate. Despite all the blather about not "letting the terrorists win," it appeared that was exactly what had happened, especially in the east.

Few say boo about 50,000 annual road fatalities, or over 30,000 annual firearms deaths.

But oh my, those terrorists!

People need to get a grip.
 

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