[Publib] Re: Taking photo of disruptive customer/patron

[Andy Barnett]

>If you have a video security system, you are already taking such 
>photos, all the time.

If you don't have a video security system, you can use any digital 
camera to shoot either stills or video of a situation. Such as, a 
staffer tells someone to leave and them refusing and becoming 
abusive. Then call the police to have them removed. Once they have 
been instructed (not asked, but told) to leave, they are trespassing. 
The video provides cover for your actions.

Especially in an afterschool situation, minors can feel that they 
have power as long as you don't know their name, so taking their 
picture and sharing it with the police or school officials can have a 
useful effect. Once they know that their actions can have 
consequences, the  level playing field is restored. Doesn't solve all 
situations, but some situations don't have pleasant solutions.

As for shooting a photo and using it as PR or on a website, that is 
another kettle of fish. Don't post the video on youtube.



Andy Barnett, Asst. Director                    www.mcmillanlibrary.org
McMillan Memorial Library
490 East Grand Ave.                             715-422-5144 (phone)
Wisconsin Rapids, WI  54494                     715-423-2665 (fax)

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
      -  Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929 - 1968