Greg Parker Photography

In the recent weeks I have been researching how other areas handle the Press, for this writing this will be anyone from large TV news crews and photo journalists to YouTubers.

What I have seen is the press is largely ignored. The Public Service Members go about their work as they are not there. The Members walk past them, walk around them and for the most part say nothing. This is often inside any taped off sections and directly beside all the equipment and action. The press was all right up into it but yet out of the way. The press seen was TV news crews, photographers and YouTubers, not to mention all the regular people standing around with cellphones. The few instances I saw any interaction it was all positive. The Members would greet the Press and in some cases knew them. In one occasion the press was thanked for being there and filming the event as it helped them in their training and to document the actions on the scene. These included Departments from FDNY, Seattle, Worcester, Stockton, Newark Ohio, and Chicago with the majority being with FDNY.

Many of these fires were multiple alarm fires, mostly four alarm fires. One was a 10 alarm fire that was completely insane. So these agencies have multiple alarm fires, hundreds of Members on the scene, Apparatus in just as large numbers. (1) For a four alarm fire in the FDNY you would have 45 pieces of apparatus with an estimated 198 Members. Each following alarm would bring 6 pieces of apparatus and estimated 37 more Members. A 10 alarm fire could have 52 pieces of apparatus and 420 Members on scene. All that on a few New York streets in close proximity.

Yet with all this going on the press still is allowed to do their job. It’s almost as they are expected to be there. The majority of Departments in this writing are quite large with thousands of Members and hundreds of thousands of people they protect.

I wonder if this is why I receive such a negative reception compared to those in these major cities. The FDNY is used to people and Press being everywhere whereas small town Ohio is not. Small town Ohio Departments are in rural areas and in many cases are all Volunteers and not paid Professional Firefighters. ( I do not say this to derogate the volunteers as they are trained Firefighters) These department generally have smaller fires in comparisons to large compacted city’s and would draw a smaller Press response if for no other reason than a smaller Press corp. This does not excuse their actions, Police and Fire Departments should know the law and cannot make it up as they go, or deny because they don’t want to be photographed. I feel it is also a fine line to deny for safety, Too often government uses safety as a reason to keep one from doing something when in reality they just don’t want you there and have no other recourse. People with dangerous jobs know the risks, just like the Firefighters or the Police Officers. This doesn’t mean go running in a burning building or hang out in the collapse zone where you the Press may endanger someone else or disrupt the scene. Only time will tell how this will be in the future with the increasing government expansion into every aspect of life wanting to manage anything you do and Public Servants that think they get to tell everyone what to do every moment of the day.

Get close, get your shot, get your story and stay out of the way.

• (1)I was unable to ascertain a date on the information gathered, it may or my not be current of this writing and should only used for reference.

• Information in this article was gathered from countless hours of Youtube videographers on the ground in the listed cities watching their experiences.

• Thumbnail from https://unsplash.com/@johnj5036

I remember a time when one with a very simple scanner could listen to all the emergency traffic for one area. The Journalist could actually beat the Fire department to a call. In many cases this is long since over with the implementing of Trunked radio systems. 

Before all agencies used  simple radio systems with a few single frequencies. That did make it difficult to communicate with other departments or agencies without using a dispatcher in-between. It was very simple for anyone else to listen in.

The trunked radio systems in a very simple explanation ties multiple agencies together on one system. For instance with MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) in Ohio  one can talk all over the state through the computer controlled network. This is really good for the Members using the system, Mutual aid is easier to coordinate with and in the case of Police they can travel through areas and still communicate with their department when out of direct radio coverage.

This does make life more expensive and difficult for the civilian scanner listener and the journalist looking for the story.  The popular scanner that operates this mode starts near $700, just a portable scanner and no programing software. Finding a used radio for the mode is quite difficult if you don’t know anything about the system.

For larger news agencies this is nothing, but for a freelance photographer it is a lot of money. It’s hard to get the photograph you never know about. Now one must keep an eye out on social media looking for the public to post something or the agency itself to post. The FDNY actually has an automated twitter account @ FDNYalerts that they post runs too. It is funny how with the invention of new technology how it has taken us back to a time before radio communications. The freelance journalist has to rely on a hot tip to get the shot.

It makes me wonder if or when will it be completely impossible for anyone outside the Public Service groups to hear the radio traffic and know what is happening.

“MARCS FACTS

MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) is an 700/800 MHz radio and data network that utilizes state-of-the-art trunked technology to provide statewide interoperability in digital clarity to its subscribers throughout Ohio and a 10 mile radius outside of Ohio. The MARCS system provides statewide, secure, reliable public service wireless communication for public safety and first responders.

There are currently over 120,000 voice units and over 1,800 mobile data units on the MARCS system with over 2,800 public safety/public service agencies statewide. This includes local, state and federal agencies.”

https://das.ohio.gov/Divisions/Information-Technology/MARCS-Services

This Morning I learned on social media about local fired departments doing crash extrication and firefighting training, So I though great opportunity to give these people some exposure and get some practice in.

I was wrong. I pulled up near the area the training was being conducted outside the area they had blocked by cones for vehicular traffic and gathered my gear. I took my D810 and F4 with the longest lenses I have in order to stay far away from the training. No more then 30 seconds after I started walking around what could only be presumed as the perimeter of the property a local Police officer came to talk with me. He said “they” ( presuming a Fire Chief) wanted to know who I was and what I was doing and that “they” didn’t want pictures taken. I told the officer I am a local photographer here to photograph the training. The officer then reinstated that “they” didn’t pictures taken. I told the officer I though that was pretty odd and asked to confirm this was indeed public property, he said yes. I then asked if he knew then they could not prevent me from photographing the training. The officer then stated it to be a closed training event. Some cones in a drive way hardly constitutes a closed training event in my opinion.

I could have walked outside the vehicle barriers or to the park and there would have been nothing they could have done but to move the barrier out. At this point it was not worth the trouble, going out there today was more for them then myself, pressing the point would actually disrupt the training and that is not what I wanted. So I went to my car put my equipment away and left.

Not even having a opportunity to talk with the person who took issue with me being there is a little troubling. The fact that Public Servants think they can prevent Photo Journalist or any other person from photographing them in public is disturbing. I understand there are issues with “scene” control and liability. None of those existed today. There was no fire line or police line designating an exclusion area. Some how everywhere in sight became excluded. I don’t know what this person thinks is so secretive about about this training to keep people in the dark. The fact that this training was posted on social media is interesting considering its secretive nature.

This event has made me think about how to handle these situations in the future. This is the first time I had been confronted with issues of me photographing and I was not prepared as I should have been. Now I shall put together list of things to both put them at ease and to protect my rights. People may not think I can be press since I only have a blog and I am a Freelance Photographer not tied to and agency but you don’t have to be FOX or CNN to be press. You may wonder why I had not previously coordinated with the FD, I only knew about the training because of facebook as it was in progress so I could not coordinate prior. If this was a real situation there would not be prior coordination, you would arrive stay out of the way and do what you can to get the shot.

This rises some questions. Are Public servants trained on what the Press’s rights are and what they can actually prevent them from doing e.g. crossing fire lines, truly interfering with operations or how the press can help them? What could I have done better? I cloud have dug out a business card and tried to get the officer to understand my intentions better even though he was only out to get me to leave. I want to note he was polite the entire time. I should have asked them to state clear scene lines to keep behind. I cloud have and should have asked to talk directly to the “scene“ commander. I can in the future try and meet someone in the Department leadership and converse with them about future training.

Free Press 0, Government secrecy 1

Update 21DEC2019:

For a department official that didn’t want any photos taken more than 10 have been posted of that event. this only reinforces that their actions were bias and wrong.

This week I opened my print store. I have listed a handful of photos to get started, I do not know how many I will keep up at any given time. I will eventually add my personaly enlarged darkroom prints. For the  interduction all prints are on sale. I have also added further savings with a proptional discount code good from this Friday morning to Sunday night 8 Feb-  10Feb 2019. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and take a trip over to check out my prints. Www.Gregparkerphotography.Com/prints/

Greg