Against law to take photos inside a mall?

One of those days and I decided to work on my street photography. So I was sitting on a bench in the local mall and was taking photos of people that I found to be interesting. I had a mall security cop come up and said that I had to put my camera away. That is was against the law to take photos while in a mall??

Isn't this public space?

Malls are privately owned, then again they might be concerned that people will get uncomfortable with their photos taken that they won't come back.

Sawyer wrote: Malls are privately owned, then again they might be concerned that people will get uncomfortable with their photos taken that they won't come back.

Also a lot of signs and material is copyrighted. There's many reasons why they don't want you doing it. Also, as said above, it's privately owned.

as already mentioned... its privately owned property.

What this means is they can set the conditions of your entry. if you break those conditions you can be asked to leave or barred from the property on future occasions. failure to comply can result in a trespass charge being filed.

also, it is not required that the property owner himself be required to deal with this. Anyone acting in the interest of the property owner (such as management, security guards, etc) can legally ask you to leave. In some locations it is even legal for them to have you forcefully removed from the premises. they dont even need to phone the police..

Now this is generic legal information. of course the laws of your local state/province/country may differ slightly... or even be completely different.

Where im from, for example... it was perfectly acceptable for me to use force to remove someone from a business i managed, provided i didnt use more force than necessary to remove them. if they walked out... i couldnt do a thing. if i pulled them toward a door and they threw a punch at me i could legally throw one right back. i could also charge them with assault.

Its actually funny the number of people that I have kicked off a property physically who have then phoned the police to charge me with assault. most of them are honestly shocked when they discover its them that are facing criminal charges. most of the time i didnt pursue charges because in the end its just not worth it. and it takes forever. for example a serious event that took place Nov 2010, wont have a trial until Aug 2012?? LOL... and this was a guy who was charged with assault, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, and a number of others i dont recall. btw it wasnt me he attacked, it was an employee, but i broke his nose and dislocated his shoulder. no charges were even considered against me because both witnesses and security cameras show that after i pulled him off my employee, i told him to leave, he refused, and then tried to attack me (this was after i pulled him off the employee). fortunately im a trained fighter, his first attempt to punch me ended with a broken nose, his second attempt ended in a dislocated shoulder. then he left... but we got his license plate number heh.


anyways... moral of the story... comply with people when on private property. dont argue or fight back. dont assume the law is on your side lol. you could find yourself in more trouble than its worth.

Wow good info to know for future reference

Don't mess with geoff!

What's your business and why do you have to kick people off so much?

Bar?

It was a high volume restaurant in a not so great part of town. commonly dealt with drunks,homeless and people with mental issues.

Im not saying i got into physical confrontations every night though lol... but even if you average 1 incident every 1-2 months... it still works out to as little as 50 during my tenure , and as much as 100. And again these range from small incidents where a guy shoved me because i refused to serve him... to fights that ended up with assaults and weapons charges lol... and everything in between. And im not exactly looking for a fight either... i just wont put up with anyone out of line

Like one incident... my cleaning staff came and told me that a patron was harassing them. well, im not going to kick someone out on that alone. I need a reason. So i went out and sat and watched from a distance. suddenly while one of the cleaning staff was walking by this customer, the customer jumps at him, grabs his mop, and starts chasing him with it. well, I grabbed him, put him in a headlock, dragged him to the nearest exit, and to no exaggeration i threw him out the door. he cut his hand on the stone walkway outside. he called the police and asked them to charge me with assault. the police literally phoned me up. told me this, and asked me what happened. I told them, they asked me for a description and wanted to know if i wanted to press charges. I said no. They told me they had a patrol car in the area and would keep an eye out for him. remember, he called the police, not I.

another, a woman was literally harassing customers, she came in...asking people for money, then literally picked up a guys touchscreen notebook ($$$) and started looking it over... she was not sober and i think the guy was nearly about to deck her... so i told her to leave, she was refusing, so i literally grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from the building, during which she was threatening to shoot me, etc. anyways when we got outside 3 of her male friends waiting outside decided to take a crack at me. anyways it only took 1 bloody nose for them to decide it wasnt worth it lol

ironically if it was a bar, theyd have beefy security guards. As we were a non-alcoholic serving restaurant the owner deemed it too costly to hire security for stuff that /might/ happen like i said once every 1-2 months. And personally, i consider "security" companies here to be a joke anyways. 4000$ for a scrawny guy (or girl) that is primarily trained to take notes and resolve conflict and phone the police LOL they arent even allowed to carry mace.

I have plenty of other stories... i just wanted to be clear that i wasnt exactly out looking for fights haha - but at the same time i have the confidence and experience to take care of myself. i have never been hurt in any confrontation whatsoever, at or outside of work. atleast no more than a few scrapes here and there lol i should also mention though that guns are not really an issue. difficult for the average punk losers to come by. the most dangerous weapons ive encountered are knives. usually kitchen knives LOL- on the upside... i have never had a robbery, armed or otherwise. but thankfully that aspect of my life is over for now

Now im just an unemployed traveller haha

geoffellis wrote: as already mentioned... its privately owned property.

What this means is they can set the conditions of your entry. if you break those conditions you can be asked to leave or barred from the property on future occasions. failure to comply can result in a trespass charge being filed.

also, it is not required that the property owner himself be required to deal with this. Anyone acting in the interest of the property owner (such as management, security guards, etc) can legally ask you to leave. In some locations it is even legal for them to have you forcefully removed from the premises. they dont even need to phone the police..

Now this is generic legal information. of course the laws of your local state/province/country may differ slightly... or even be completely different.

Where im from, for example... it was perfectly acceptable for me to use force to remove someone from a business i managed, provided i didnt use more force than necessary to remove them. if they walked out... i couldnt do a thing. if i pulled them toward a door and they threw a punch at me i could legally throw one right back. i could also charge them with assault.

Its actually funny the number of people that I have kicked off a property physically who have then phoned the police to charge me with assault. most of them are honestly shocked when they discover its them that are facing criminal charges. most of the time i didnt pursue charges because in the end its just not worth it. and it takes forever. for example a serious event that took place Nov 2010, wont have a trial until Aug 2012?? LOL... and this was a guy who was charged with assault, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, and a number of others i dont recall. btw it wasnt me he attacked, it was an employee, but i broke his nose and dislocated his shoulder. no charges were even considered against me because both witnesses and security cameras show that after i pulled him off my employee, i told him to leave, he refused, and then tried to attack me (this was after i pulled him off the employee). fortunately im a trained fighter, his first attempt to punch me ended with a broken nose, his second attempt ended in a dislocated shoulder. then he left... but we got his license plate number heh.


anyways... moral of the story... comply with people when on private property. dont argue or fight back. dont assume the law is on your side lol. you could find yourself in more trouble than its worth.

Says it all

I say if you see a shot take it. I've been know to shoot Christmas decorations at the mall mostly for my stock and it killed the time while wifey is shopping. I've never been reprimanded nor even approached. Also the worst that can happen is you will be asked to stop and possibly to leave. The same holds true for my casino shots. As long as they don't think you are shooting their security setup nor their customers they don't seem to mind.

It might be the fact that I wear a suit that makes me look like a potted plant...

Check out this link:
The Photographer's Right

This has happen to me a couple years ago. I was in the mall taking pictures of the Halloween decor. I was minding my own business when all of a sudden a mall cop came up to me and told me to stop taking pictures. I'm like WTF I am only taking pictures of the decorations. He said photographing is not allowed in the mall.

MommaGator wrote: Check out this link:
The Photographer's Right

Thanks,bookmarked!

robbie wrote:

MommaGator wrote: Check out this link:
The Photographer's Right

Thanks,bookmarked!

I actually carry a printed copy of this in my bag. It seems to be a good luck charm for me as I have never taken it out.

If you're on private property you'd need to follow whatever guidelines they have established. In sports arenas they have policies that have become more strict about what camera/lens you can bring in (just as they do for what items in general you can bring into an arena.) I've seen signs posted at store entrances that prohibit or restrict cameras. I imagine it's due to so many people having cell phone cameras etc. (prior to that, how often would anyone bring a camera into a store or mall?)

You could look at professional photographers organizations' sites like ASMP - asmp.org/articles/business-and-legal-faq.html#11 . I worked a job where I was out in the community in various neighborhoods in the city and in a real-life situation I doubt authorities would spend time reading a 5 column article (with a disclaimer in the last two paragraphs that makes it not exactly legally binding by any stretch, or at the very least seems to indicate the lawyer wants to sell you his book...).

In any situation like that you'd need to comply w/security and if you feel like they made a mistake then you could go to the mall office or contact their management, go through the proper authorities to find out what their policies are, etc.

Scotty wrote:

Sawyer wrote: Malls are privately owned, then again they might be concerned that people will get uncomfortable with their photos taken that they won't come back.

Also a lot of signs and material is copyrighted. There's many reasons why they don't want you doing it. Also, as said above, it's privately owned.

Love that avatar!