The federal agency responsible for protecting more than 9,000 federal facilities is reminding its security guards that the general public has the right to take photographs and shoot video outside the courthouses, office buildings and campuses they protect.
The reminder is part of a federal court settlement between the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The group represented Antonio Musumeci, 29, of Edgewater, N.J., who sued after being arrested in November for videotaping a demonstrator outside a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
One of Musumeci's cameras was confiscated during the arrest, but he managed to document the incident with another camera.
A settlement reached Friday required FPS to issue the reminder to its full-time inspector staff. But FPS guards may still approach and observe individuals photographing or filming the exterior of federal buildings to ask for identification and ask why they're taking photos or video.
The settlement "clarifies that protecting public safety is fully compatible with the need to grant public access to federal facilities, including photography of the exterior of federal buildings," FPS spokesman Michael Keegan said in an e-mail.
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