I want to share my experience and seek your opinions on it.
Two years ago at Geylang Serai during the Hari Raya period. I was with some of the members of my photographic society then on an outing. The decorations on an overhead bridge was burnt then. A group of fireman and policeman was around then to remove the burnt objects from the bridge. Never seen firemen in action before (bright red fire-engines, ladders and all), I set up my tripod (it was evening time and the lighting is too dim for the telephoto shot) and wanted to try to capture the red men in action.
One of the policemen approached us and asked us which publication were we from. After telling him that we were just hobbists, he said that we could not take photographs and demanded that we hand over the films. He even asked for my IC and copied down my particulars.
After convincing him that we had not taken any shots (I did not and showed him my camera that it is still at frame 1), and copying my particulars, he let us off.
Questions I would like to pose is
1. Just wondering are we able to take photographs of civil forces in action.
2. Does the policeman has the right to demand our films and record our particulars?
:dunno: