23-year-old freelance news photographer Andrew Flinchbaugh was arrested late last week in Lacey Township, New Jersey after capturing video of an accident and then refusing to hand his camera over to police as potential evidence for the crash investigation. The 10-minute video above is Flinchbaugh’s recording of the confrontation that transpired.
Philadelphia’s NBC10 covered the story and aired this short investigative piece on this incident and what “our rights are when it comes to matter such as this”:
Flinchbaugh was charged with obstructing administration of law, a disorderly persons offense. The local county prosecutor Joseph Coronato announced yesterday that charges against the photographer have been dropped, and he tells NBC10 that he “believes the incident probably could have been handled better by everyone involved.”
Coronato also says that this case will likely be included in training so that future law enforcement officers will know how cameras should be handled in the future.
(via NBC Philadelphia via Reddit)
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.