By Carlos Miller
A Tampa Tribune photojournalist had his cell phone confiscated – and was detained for 15 minutes – after he photographed the scene of an accident involving a U.S. Customs officer early Monday morning.
Jay Nolan arrived on the scene where a Customs vehicle was hanging over a bridge after it was involved in a three-car accident. Using his cell phone, he snapped a photo of the accident along with Customs Officer David Tipton talking on a phone.
After noticing his photo had been taken, Tipton demanded that Nolan assure him he not publish the photo.
Much to his credit, Nolan refused to give him that assurance.
According to the Tampa Tribune:
“He told me, ‘You don’t understand. We’re not local law enforcement here. We’re the federal government. We’ll take your gear right now,’” Nolan said. “He gave me two choices: either give my assurance or be placed under arrest.”
Tipton then confiscated Nolan’s cell phone and another officer whisked Nolan away.
Because Nolan was not handcuffed, he managed to switch the compact flash in his digital SLR with an empty card in case that ended up confiscated.
About 15 minutes later, another officer returned the cell phone and released Nolan. Two hours later, Gary McClelland, the agency’s port director, apologized to Nolan at the scene.
McClelland tried to justify Tipton’s aggressive and bullying behavior as a natural reaction from the accident.
“You have to understand the gentleman (Tipton) was just in a very serious accident,” McClelland said. “He was very shaken up.”
Let’s see if we can get away with threatening and stealing somebody’s personal property next time we get in a car accident.
Oblivious to First Amendment protections on public photography, McClelland told the Tribune that normally they do not allow people to take their photos because of the “nature of their jobs”, but they make exceptions to the media.
According to officials, the crash occurred when a Mazda Miata struck a PT Cruiser, forcing the Cruiser into the Customs car.
The driver of the Miata was cited for careless driving and the driver of the PT Cruiser was arrested on a warrant.
But considering how hard they tried to cover this up and how blatantly they lied about photography laws, why should we believe the Customs officer was not at fault here?
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
14 responses so far ↓
1 Frank // Dec 7, 2009 at 8:29 PM
So why wasn’t Tipton arrested and charged with civil rights violations?
2 Jay // Dec 7, 2009 at 9:48 PM
I think I’m going to write a ‘Groundhog Day’ song. F*cking bullshit. I need to yell something that everyone here knows: PHOTOGRAPHY OF ANYTHING FROM A PUBLIC STREET IS 100% LEGAL. PERIOD. No more yelling. For now.
3 Charles U. Farley // Dec 7, 2009 at 9:55 PM
Shows the overinflated ego’s of the Federales who imply that they have greater power to seize cameras than other law enforcement authorities. Seems that they don’t think the First and Fourth Amendment applies to them.
Interesting that the supervisor Gary McClelland stated: ORDINARILY OFFICERS DON’T PERMIT PHOTOGRAPHS BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THEIR JOBS, but the agency doesn’t want to hinder the media. So, even the supervisor thinks that they can limit public photography under the color of authority. I think this would have been really ugly if the photographer had not been a mainstream photojournalist.
Charles U. Farley
4 Michaelk42 // Dec 7, 2009 at 10:11 PM
“He told me, ‘You don’t understand. We’re not local law enforcement here. We’re the federal government. We’ll take your gear right now,’” Nolan said.
Because being part of the federal government somehow magically makes it OK.
The gall of these douchebags.
5 Workingindust // Dec 8, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Curious if Mr. Nolan or his bosses will let this die or keep it alive. Stories of federal officers interfering with a free press and a bullshit excuse from the port director justifying his actions shouldn’t be allowed to just fade away. It almost sounds like a play by play from a country like… China or Iran – you’d never guess it came from the USA.
6 MacK // Dec 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Carlos pointed out “why should we believe the Customs officer was not at fault here?”
I have come to the point I believe nothing the police say. The other day a cop said “The sky is blue”, rain is wet, the earth is round, and Tuesday follows Monday, but I thought what a lying POS.
7 mel // Dec 8, 2009 at 11:27 AM
they will continue to operate above the law as long as they can bully the public into thinking they have “authority”. They have no authority they haven’t usurped, just like their boss the usurper wannabe pres. These criminals make the mafia look like boy scouts.
8 mepsipax // Dec 8, 2009 at 11:43 AM
It is all a lie without video. Which they delete. See the trend. They do believe they are above the law. Read. We are feds.
9 Archie1954 // Dec 8, 2009 at 1:54 PM
All these egregious activities on the part of federal or state law enforcement just show a regrettable lack of professional training.
10 RC // Dec 8, 2009 at 2:45 PM
He was right when he said ‘‘You don’t understand. We’re not local law enforcement here. We’re the federal government. [We're even bigger douchebags than Barney Fife over there].
I’m in agreement with MacK.
11 Jermaine Ferguson - High School Teacher // Dec 8, 2009 at 6:11 PM
I would have had the accident scene photos published and video of the incident uploaded to the newspaper’s website.
12 Ray // Dec 9, 2009 at 10:05 AM
“You have to understand sir, it’s ok for a law enforcement official to break the law if he’s having a bad day”
13 Supernintendo Chalmers // Dec 11, 2009 at 5:42 PM
great point you make, Carlos, about the credibility of those in positions of authority.
14 Rob H. // Dec 11, 2009 at 7:16 PM
So the logic is “We get to violate the constitution because we’re cops.” Nice.
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