Someone once told me you couldn’t take pictures of police officers while they were on duty. I recently decided to defy that rule. I was intrigued by the officers in Times Square and decided to try and sneak a few photos in. Luckily, I have a pretty powerful lens kit, which allowed me to stand at a distance and shoot:

During one instance, the officer actually caught me doing so and I immediately felt my heart sink. I thought he was going to scold me, but surprisingly, he turned away. Then, a little while later, I saw several tourists approach the officers to ask if they could take a photo with them or of them. Surprisingly, they obliged and even posed!

This made me second-guess my initial conviction that taking photos of the police is a prohibited practice. Turns out, it's perfectly legal. A lot of times, officers will order people to turn off their cameras, but technically, there is no law that forbids you from taking photographs in public.

There is only one exception and that is if your actions happen to obstruct governmental administration. Feel free to snap away, but make sure you don’t get in the way of the police while they are on duty.