Mat Stern took photos of a private property in Edelweiss last Tuesday.
While doing so, he was accused by Clydesdale Community Police Forum (CPF) members of overstepping his boundaries.
The domestic worker of the property in question followed him home before she reported the incident to her employers.
They contacted the Clydesdale CPF who arrived at Stern’s house at 7.30pm.
Stern claims they were aggressive in their approach which left his girlfriend feeling intimidated.
Another accusation is of Stern taking photos of children and private property.
Stern realised the situation could be blown out of proportion and tried to explain his innocence but decided to show them the photos which were still on his camera,
He did mention he is a photographer and the photos taken were of leaves that he is going to use for a competition he wants to enter.
He claims they calmed down when they saw the photos and told him he needs permission to take photos of private properties.
Mike du Toit, chairman of the Springs CPF says given the level of crime, taking photos in a residential area that has over the past three months experienced 16 burglaries and six armed robberies, it should be understood that this is likely to be construed as suspicious by members of the public.
A member of a CPF has no more rights than any other citizen or even a policeman for that matter, but instead their role is to facilitate communication between the community and the police in the fight against crime.
CPF members patrol the areas with the objective of identifying suspicious activity.
In reporting such issues members of the public will often approach a member of the CPF who may follow-up to investigate such an incident.
Du Toit says the members follow-up stories, rather than wasting the time of the police, as it may in fact be quite innocent, which is exactly what they did in Stern’s case.
Although Stern felt sending three men was a bit much, du Toit says members never go alone as it may be serious or they may need witnesses.
“I cannot comment on what took place at the time, as there will always be two sides to the story,” he says.
He was informed in this instance the problem has been solved without calling the police.
John Fox, a photography lecturer at Digital Photography Courses (DPC) in Centurian, says these incidents are happening more often where the rights of photographers are misunderstood.
Giving guidelines he says a photographer has the right to take photos of anyone or anything if it can be seen from a public area.
He claims the public only have rights when they have secluded themselves to a place where privacy is a reasonable assumption.
“However, we urge people to be aware that behaviour that may be quite innocent could be construed by other members of the public to be intrusive or threatening,” he adds.
