Documents Show 100 Officers From 28 Law Enforcement Agencies Accessed A Photographer's Records

from the the-First-Amendment-right-to-be-hassled-endlessly dept

Here's what exercising your First Amendment rights gets you in certain parts of the US. Photographer Jeff Gray has been filming cops and photographing public structures, as well as documenting the reactions of law enforcement to his activities.

The Department of Homeland Security apparently felt Gray was enough of a "threat" that it opened an investigation on him. After scrutinizing publicly-available information (like Gray's own YouTube account), it came to the conclusion that his activities were completely protected… it just didn't like the way he acted.

This subject is exercising his first amendment rights, however the manner in which he lures the officers in is concerning.

Well, you can't be "lured" if you just respect citizens' rights -- rights that were recently upheld by a Supreme Court decision. Despite the DHS declaring Gray's actions perfectly fine, local law enforcement officers still took it upon themselves to send social services to his home (after being "tipped" that Gray owned guns) and interviewing his kids at school without his knowledge.

Now, Gray has obtained more information that shows law enforcement officers are still trying to find some way to shut down his protected activities.

After several years of auditing police departments across Florida to determine whether their officers uphold the First Amendment and the law of the land, Photography Is Not A Crime’s Jeff Gray has had his driver’s license and vehicle tag information searched by police well over 200 times.

Gray’s request for the record of who accessed his information on the state-operated Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) turned up police officer after police officer running Gray’s vehicle plate and driver’s license.

The number of agencies that have peeked at Gray's records is amazing. District attorneys' offices from two different districts have run his records and 100 officers spread across 28 agencies (including the state's Fish and Wildlife Dept.) have accessed his data, often multiple times.

The documents also include a few redacted names, withheld using exemption 119.071(4)(c):

Any information revealing undercover personnel of any criminal justice agency is exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution.

Apparently, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has manpower to burn, and can use undercover personnel to "investigate" First Amendment-protected activities.

Gray will probably be able to add the DEA to that list as well, after his most recent interaction, which occurred while filming the agency's offices in Jacksonville, FL. Four unnamed, unidentified DEA agents emerged from the building in hopes of getting Gray to stop, with one of them attempting to grab cameras from both Gray and his filming partner.



One of the DEA agents (along with a responding sheriff's officer) emerged with his phone up and in shooting position, the sort of childish reaction that's becoming more common. Officers should film interactions with citizens, but cameras shouldn't be deployed in hopes of cowing someone into shutting off their recording device. (Not to mention the fact that the sheriff's squad car should have had a dashcam rolling from the moment the officer pulled up.) Gray has seen this tactic often enough to good-naturedly suggest the officers move their phones to a horizontal position to get a better recording.



The number of times Gray's records were accessed shows that law enforcement officers are looking for anything they can to shut his activism down. While a number of the records requests were probably linked to officers running his info while interacting with him, there are way more hits to the database than can be explained away as adhering to data-access policies. Plus, there's little doubt that most law enforcement officers in the area are familiar with Gray and his activities at this point, making any running of his info completely extraneous.

And, as the sheriff in the latter video states, Gray's conduct is perfectly legal, so there's really no reason for officers to be interacting with him at all at this point. Photographing public buildings and figures may make those on the other side of the camera uncomfortable, but they're just going to have to learn to get over it. Running records requests over and over again is simply abusing a tool because you have access to it.

Filed Under: dhs, first amendment, investigation, jeff gray, police, records

DHS Fusion Center Admits Photographer Is Covered By 1st Amendment But Just Doesn't Like The Way He Treats Officers

from the rights-apparently-dependent-on-compliant-behavior dept

The uselessness of the Department of Homeland Security's Fusion Centers has been detailed here before, but they've never been quite as useless as this. Here's the backstory, from Carlos Miller at Photography Is Not A Crime.

All Jeff Gray has been trying to do is ensure law enforcement officers honor the oath they swore to the Constitution upon receiving their badge, which is why he routinely video records them in public for his Youtube channel, HONORYOUROATH.

But that has led him to become the subject of an active investigation by the Florida Fusion Center, a collusion of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies encouraging citizens to rat on each other for taking too many pictures or asking too many questions.

When not recording interactions with cops, Gray also photographs publicly-visible structures like government buildings and prisons -- the sort of photography that has been equated with terrorism by the DHS.

Gray sent FOIA requests to several law enforcement agencies for anything they may have collected on his photography and recording efforts. Some requests didn't produce any documents, but others he obtained show that law enforcement agencies clearly don't know how to solve a problem like Jeff.

The most ridiculous document Jeff Gray obtained was from a DHS Fusion Center. Here's the Center's rationale for treating Gray with suspicion: He's clearly covered by the First Amendment. We just don't like his attitude.

Seriously.

On 06-23-2013, units with CCSO were dispatched to CCA, a private prison located within Columbia County, after being contacted by prison staff in reference to a suspicious person. The Subject was recording and or taking pictures of the front as he was standing on a public access across the street from the prison. Once confronted by prison staff the subject only stated that he was an independent journalist and was doing a story on the prison system. The subject refused to stop videoing after being asked to do so by prison staff. During the confrontation the subject referred to his first amendment right to be there and continued to question and press the staff to give him a reason why he could not record the outside of the facility. Once law enforcement arrived, the subject was asked for identification, the subject asked if he was being detained and once told that he was not he refused to provide ID to law enforcement. Ultimately the situation was diffused and the subject left. The subject later posted the videos of his encounters with the prison staff and CCSO Deputies on YouTube and on another website called photography is not a crime.com. This subject is exercising his first amendment rights, however the manner in which he lures the officers in is concerning.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson: it takes two to lure, one to lure and one to overreact to the utter lack of criminal activity. But the Fusion Center obviously believes that, First Amendment or no, Gray should be checked out because he's making police officers, prison staff and government agents looks bad with his "manner."

On the bright side (I guess…), the Fusion Center's "investigation" apparently involved little more than rigorously browsing the internet.

The following information has been learned from viewing the mentioned website and the subject's YouTube account.

The findings? Gray urges people to "flex their rights," and publicly calls out (via YouTube postings) officers who fail to respect his rights. Troubling stuff, but not for the reason the DHS thinks.

Beyond the DHS's belief that Gray's attitude should somehow nullify his rights, other troubling info was uncovered as well.

Gray also obtained a series of field intelligence reports from the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office regarding his video activity. One of the reports includes an incident when he was visited by the Florida Department of Children and Families after they claimed they received an anonymous tip that he had guns in his home, which is not a crime and not even a secret considering Gray is very open about his gun ownership.

But that didn’t stop DCF from interviewing his children at school without his knowledge before paying him a visit at home, which he video recorded and posted on Youtube, as well as his follow-up phone conversation with the investigator that his children were not in any imminent danger, so there was no need to further investigate him.

I guess the lesson here is that "luring" cops and security guards through the open exercise of your rights is all the reason needed for law enforcement and government agencies to open investigations. The implication that there's something more wrong with Gray's "luring" than there is with law enforcement's response is ridiculous. Law enforcement officers certainly don't need to "flex" their misguided muscle when confronted with a citizen "flexing" their rights. One is wholly optional while the other is actually protected activity.

This lousy spin attempt from the Fusion Center does nothing to improve the reputation of this national travesty. Maybe next time, officers could just walk away and not become YouTube fodder. But they can't seem to help themselves, and the DHS seems to believe it's all Gray's fault.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, dhs, fusion center, jeff gray, photographers