On the Myer’s Briggs personality test, I score high in the “J” category. I’m a judging type of fellow rather than perceiving. I have a strong sense of right versus wrong, sometimes called “darn-fool stubbornness” and it occasionally causes problems. Take this morning, for example. When walking to my office on campus, I came across two UF UPD parking enforcement employees with one University Towing (towtruck company) employee who appeared to be in the process of towing a car.

It looked like the University Towing employee was trying to unlock the vehicle with a slim-jim (I think that’s what the long skinny piece of metal is called). I stopped for a second to watch, intrigued by the various methods being used to try to open the car and I realized I had my camera on my shoulder. I could take some cool pictures of a car being (legally, I assumed) broken into! I got off one shot and was moving to a different vantage point when one of the UPD employees saw me and told me to stop taking pictures. I responded that what I was doing was legal since they were in a public place. I didn’t antagonize them by taking another picture, but crossed over to the street to discuss the issue with them.

Uh oh, here comes the “I have to argue a point that I feel is right even if I’d be better off letting it go”. Jaime hates it when I do that.

As I crossed the street to talk it over, the first UPD employee to say something crossed over to the far side and began talking on his phone.

The University Towing employee told me that if I took a picture of him, he’d rip the camera out of my hands and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. It’d be my word against his, and he’d just say I’d dropped it somewhere “over there” as he gestured some ways away. I was astonished. I replied by asking him if he really thought the two UPD employees would just lie for him as well, and asked him about all the cars driving by and potentially witnesses there.

I overheard the original UPD employee a minute later when I crossed back again talking to whom I presume was his superior at the office as they informed him that there was nothing wrong with me taking pictures like that in public. I returned to the far side of the street and was discussing with them what I was trying to do (just take an interesting picture of the process, I had no reason to take pictures of them personally and wouldn’t take any more of them if they didn’t want) while they explained that they really, really didn’t want their picture taken.

I started talking to the second UPD guy who was pretty laid back and kept saying that he understood they couldn’t stop me, they were just asking me not to take their picture. Somewhere in my discussion with him the other parking guy got in his car and drove off, and the towing guy got in his tow-truck and drove off.

At this point I began to wonder if they were trying to hide something. Was what they were trying to do illegal? I had no reason to think so, but now I was wondering. I talked with the second guy for a little while trying to find out the issue might be and he tried to convince me that me taking a picture was illegal because it would be defamation. Well, defamation would either be libel or slander. I’m quite sure a picture can’t be slander (not being spoken speech and all), and it’s kinda hard for a picture to be a “false publication” unless I doctored it which I most certainly have no intention of doing. I kept asking him about the legality of the guy getting into the car and why they had taken off. Finally he explained that yes, them breaking into the car was legal because UF had taken ownership of the vehicle and had designated the tow-truck driver to break into it. I’m not sure if his explanation is 100% the way it works, but I have no reason to think the entire process was illegal, it just seemed odd the way they all took off so quickly.

For the record, I’m a huge proponent of towing people parking illegally on campus. I work here too! I hate the overcrowded parking, and it’s only made worse by people who park where they’re not supposed to. Asking me politely to not take your picture is a very easy way to get a polite response that certainly, I will not take your picture.

I called UPD and filed an incident report with them. I work with a number of folks over there for various computer issues, but unfortunately, none of them were in. The detective who took my report though was helpful, and just a half an hour later, I got a call back from their Coordinator of Educational/Media Communications. He had spoken to the two parking enforcement employees about the incident and was calling me to let me know he would be personally calling the tow truck operator to let him know such behavior is NOT appropriate for a company that is being contracted to do work on the University. Apparently threatening to take my camera and smash it isn’t illegal, though threatening me personally would have. Good to know. Anyway, UPD’s response to the situation was excellent, the one employee who didn’t know that you’re allowed to take pictures of people in public places now does, and hopefully the attitude of the tow truck driver will be more polite in the future.

So now I’ve got a dillema. Do I post the one photo I got before they saw me? I believe it’s totally legal, but I don’t really want to cause more trouble (well, now that the J has worked itself our of my system). At the very least, I’d blur the face of the one UPD employee who is visible in the one photo I took while they were working on the car as he had asked (relatively) politely to not have his photo taken. Of course, it’s highly unlikely anybody would even see the photo who could care, but you never know.

Posted by Jordan on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 10:44 am.