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Incident in White Plains


nycbusfan

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On Friday I was photographing buses near the White Plains TransCenter when a Bee Line dispatcher races up to me in a white van and gets out. Here is a dialogue of what happened.

 

Dispatcher: IT'S ILLEGAL TO TAKE PHOTOS OF BUSES!

Me: It's not a crime and I'm just taking photos as a hobby.

Dispatcher: Yes it is illegal.

Me: Where does it say that?

Dispatcher: Weschester County law says that it is illegal to protect the privacy of bus operators.

Me: I'm taking photos of the buses and not the operators and by law I have every right to do so

Dispatcher: IF YOU WANT TO DO IT THIS WAY I WILL HAVE POLICE RESPOND!

Me: Why do police have to respond?

Dispatcher: Because you are doing somthing illegal.

Me: Ok I'll leave.

 

After this was over I called Liberty Lines to report the incident and after telling the person who answered the phone I was put on hold for a while and then told by another person that due to security reasons that it is ILLEGAL to take photos on a PUBLIC STREET without advance permission.

 

In the end I just decided to walk a block away and continue what I was doing over there.

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If you are on a public sidewalk you can take pictures of whatever you want.

I know that I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was really surprised that when I called Bee Line that hey told me I wasn't.

 

It's legal to take pics but it's not worth it to get into arguments with ignorant employees

I agree with you 100% which is why in the end I just decided to walk away and call Liberty Lines to report the incident.

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Therein lies the problem. You should stand your ground. If you don't they will think they are in the right and continue to harass you or others again in the future. As long as you are in a public area and are not being a public nuisance, you are free to snap away. There is no expectation of privacy when you are in a public area.

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That was just an empty threat by him saying that he was going to have the police respond. More then likely the cops would never have shown up as they have more important matters to attend to. I guess that dispatcher was having a bad day or something.

I actually had police show up at Mineola when I was taking pics over there.

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When i was at new brunswick i had state police officer show up, told him what i was doing, kept taking photos. :P

 

Whatever happens, don't get confrontational or combative, you are there because it's your joy and passion, treat it as such.

 

- A

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Well I was @ White Plains Transit Center with several members from on here and a B/O came up to us saying he's panaroid b/c we're snapping pics of the buses. I don't understand why the B/O's think we talking pics of them when we are only interesting in the bus....not the ppl lawd!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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