UW Prof Gets $8K Settlement Over Arrest for Photographing Power Lines
A university art professor won an $8,000 settlement from the city of Snohomish, Wash., over her arrest in 2007 for snapping photos of power lines there.
“Taking photographs of objects or people in plain view is not a crime,” Sarah Dunne, legal director of the ACLU’s Washington chapter told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer regarding University of Washington art professor Shirley Scheier’s arrest and subsequent lawsuit against the city. “Police should not presume that it is a suspicious act, and should not overreact by detaining people for taking pictures.”
A 2007 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said Scheier had photographed an electrical substation that the Department of Homeland Security had identified as a “critical infrastructure” target. At the time, Scheier was handcuffed and frisked and detained in the backseat of a patrol car for 25 minutes.
Snohomish City Manager Larry Bauman thinks his officers acted appropriately in response to a 911 call from the Bonneville Power Administration.
