Photography on Manchester Metrolink

[AdamWW]

This morning I took a photo on Metrolink property with my phone.

A security guard asked me for my photography permit.

Having now looked on their web site I can't see any requirement for a permit for non commercial photography (which this fairly obviously was).

Have I missed something? I suppose it's possible that this is one of those rare occasions when a member of staff has misinterpreted the rules.

 

[meld3]

Think I would just produce a middle finger from my pocket.....

 

[507 001]

I suppose it's possible that this is one of those rare occasions when a member of staff has misinterpreted the rules.

This is correct.

 

[Big M]

This morning I took a photo on Metrolink property with my phone.

A security guard asked me for my photography permit.

Having now looked on their web site I can't see any requirement for a permit for non commercial photography (which this fairly obviously was).

Have I missed something? I suppose it's possible that this is one of those rare occasions when a member of staff has misinterpreted the rules.

You can assault someone with impunity, but heaven help you if you try and take a photograph of a public service vehicle.

 

[AdamWW]

You can assault someone with impunity, but heaven help you if you try and take a photograph of a public service vehicle.

Actually there wasn't even a tram in shot! (Perhaps that looked more suspicious.)

 

[Russel]

I suppose it's possible that this is one of those rare occasions when a member of staff has misinterpreted the rules.

With security staff, it isn't a rare occasion, most of them, regardless of industry have no idea of the rules and what they can and cannot enforce.

I have little time for them.

 

[AdamWW]

With security staff, it isn't a rare occasion, most of them, regardless of industry have no idea of the rules and what they can and cannot enforce.

I have little time for them.

There may have been a little sarcasm intended.

Anyway the person in question was polite and didn't make any attempt to prevent me walking away.
It's not a job I would fancy doing and I don't expect the pay is that great.

 

[Russel]

There may have been a little sarcasm intended.

Anyway the person in question was polite and didn't make any attempt to prevent me walking away.
It's not a job I would fancy doing and I don't expect the pay is that great.

Oh fair enough, I missed the sarcasm.

Yep, low pay, lack of training yet many still seem to be on some kind of hi-vis vest empowered power trip.

 

[AdamWW]

Oh fair enough, I missed the sarcasm.

Lowest form of wit and all that...

Yep, low pay, lack of training yet many still seem to be on some kind of hi-vis vest empowered power trip.

Indeed but I think it quite plausible that in this case it was a genuine though misguided attempt at doing the right thing.
It was one of the more polite encounters I've had with security!

Neverthless it's not something that should be happening.

 

[Harpo]

many still seem to be on some kind of hi-vis vest empowered power trip.

Blame the employers/hirers rather than the personnel.

The mimicking of police uniform probably has consequences on behaviour and makes it difficult to tell them apart. Police in baseball caps blurs things further.

 

[Russel]

Blame the employers/hirers rather than the personnel.

The mimicking of police uniform probably has consequences on behaviour and makes it difficult to tell them apart. Police in baseball caps blurs things further.

No, I'll blame both, security jobs do seem attract a certain type of person who enjoy the perceived power they have..

 

[Harpo]

No, I'll blame both, security jobs do seem attract a certain type of person who enjoy the perceived power they have..

I’d still blame the employer if the result is an unsuitable employee. But you have to wonder how much choice there is.

 

[Big M]

Actually there wasn't even a tram in shot! (Perhaps that looked more suspicious.)

To be honest, an anorak taking photos of a run down station with people, especially children, in the shot, I think nowadays it will raise suspicions on both counts.

 

[AdamWW]

To be honest, an anorak taking photos of a run down station with people, especially children, in the shot, I think nowadays it will raise suspicions on both counts.

Possibly but that was not in fact not the situation here either.

In any case, in my book no amount of suspicion justifies making rules up.

 

[Big M]

There may have been a little sarcasm intended.

Anyway the person in question was polite and didn't make any attempt to prevent me walking away.
It's not a job I would fancy doing and I don't expect the pay is that great.

The pay isn’t great I am afraid and the hours anti-social.

 

[bramling]

To be honest, an anorak taking photos of a run down station with people, especially children, in the shot, I think nowadays it will raise suspicions on both counts.

People should mind their own business. The whole “suspicious” culture which has developed over the last generation or so is extremely unpleasant.

Add to that these people who seem to think that their employer issuing them with a yellow vest gives them some kind of special privilege to pester others, especially as most don’t tend to be the sharpest tool in the box by a very long way.

 

[Big M]

The days of systematic and sometimes horrendous
societal abuse are numbered, and if that is as a result of an evolving suspicious culture, well the pendulum never rests at it’s central point.