Police photographs

Wood v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2009] EWCA Civ 41; SJ 2 June p30

The claimant, who had no criminal convictions and had never been arrested attended as a shareholder the annual general meeting of a company whose subsidiary organised a trade fair for the arms industry. He asked a question at the meeting and then left. He was a media coordinator for an organisation known as Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). He and other members of CAAT were spoken to by the police, and when he declined to identify himself or answer questions about the meeting the police took the photographs in order to be able to identify offenders if offences were committed or had been committed. The trial judge dismissed the claimant’s claim that the taking and retention of photographs by the police was a breach of his right to respect for his private life under art 8(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 and that the police had failed to justify that interference as proportionate under art 8(2).