The New York Times > New York Region > Want Shots Like This? Get a Permit Dan Gillmor points us to an article appearing in the New York Times this morning that New York may ban photography without permit in the City’s Subway system very shortly.
14th Street Station, part of the Retrospective Series entitled Reflections on Manhattan, by Thomas Hawk
According the the article, “New York City Transit, the authority subsidiary that operates the city’s subways and buses, announced the proposed photography ban last May and issued the proposed new rules in November. A 45-day public comment period – required under state law – ends tomorrow.
After that, the proposal will be revised or submitted for a formal vote by the authority board. ”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Tom Kelly, said the new photography rules were devised after extensive talks with the Police Department, which is responsible for patrolling subways and buses.
“Nobody is looking to violate anybody’s civil rights or deny anybody’s constitutional rights,” Mr. Kelly said. “But when you check with law enforcement agencies, they have uncovered photographs of subway and rail systems from various terrorist organizations. And I don’t believe they were going into somebody’s scrapbook.”
For my own personal experience with the New York City Police at Grand Central Station earlier in October 2004, see this post.