Mixed Met message

AS A working photographer in London, Nigel Howard writes, I regularly come into contact with officers from the Metropolitan Police. Some days their attitude is friendly, professional and accommodating - and on other days it is not. The treatment of photographers looks like a lottery, with some officers choosing to ignore, dismiss or claim they have no knowledge of the new guidelines which were introduced to protect journalists from unwarranted and over-zealous behaviour by police officers. These have been adopted UK-wide by the Association of Chief Police Officers (see here) and, in August also by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. But here you see a police officer in Wembley trying to stop me taking a photograph in August. Photo © Nigel Howard