London Metropolitan Police Constables Claim You Need Permission to Film Specific Individuals in Public

January 18, 2017 Kelly W. Patterson 1314 Views @MPSHackney, Accountability, Brent Council, Civil rights, civil tort, collar number, cop block, Copblock submissions, copblock.org, England, filming in public, Filming police, freedom, Harassment, kelly patterson, London, London Metropolitan police, Marcus Potter, Metropolitan Police Service, no victim no crime, police, police abuse, police accountability, Police Constable 136QK Hill, Police Constable 945QK Murphy, rights, security guards, trespass, UK, united kingdom, video, Wembley, Wembley Stadium

The following post and accompanying videos were shared with the CopBlock Network by Marcus Potter, who has submitted numerous other videos to the CopBlock Network, as well. It was shared via the CopBlock.org Submissions Page. (See “Related Posts” section below for previous videos submitted by Marcus Potter.)

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Date of Incident: August 27, 2016
Officers Involved: Police Constables 945QK Murphy and 136QK Hill
Department Involved: Metropolitan Police Service
Department Twitter Account: @MPSHackney
Department Facebook Page: Metropolitan Police Service UK
Department Telephone No.: +44300 123 1212

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On August 27th 2016, I decided to visit Wembley, London and to do some CopBlocking whilst there. I also did some filming of security guards in a pub, who as a result became aggressive towards me. I then phoned 999 and requested the police to which they began laughing and saying that I was wasting their time.

An hour later, two Metropolitan Police Officers arrived, namely PCs 945QK Murphy and 136QK Hill. I spoke to them about what happened and they went to the pub to speak to the security guards. They then came back to me, at which point Murphy warned me that any filming directed towards a specific person (other than a police officer) without their consent would be a criminal offense.

At this point, Murphy radioed her Sgt and then got back to me with incorrect information, namely that an aggravated form of the offense would be committed if the subject was under 18. I corrected her and stated that for any offense to be committed by the filming of a child, the video would have to be of an indecent nature and, as I have not, am not, and will not take any indecent videos of children, no offense would be or has been committed by me.

Murphy replied that she was correct and we agreed to disagree. Murphy further warned me that by filming in the footprint of Wembley I was committing the civil tort of trespass and could be directed to leave by a police officer or representative of Brent Council if I continued to film. I continued to film and was not told to leave the footprint at any point. I was later told by another officer that I was in fact free to film in any public place, whether or not in the footprint.

– Marcus D Potter