This will piss some of you off. I don’t care. Here’s what I do. And bear in mind, I live in a suburban area where we do not have a permitting process and where police are not used to dealing with location photography that might involve stands, lights, etc.

Generally, the police aren’t gonna just happen upon you. What happens is somebody calls you in. They call 911 (seriously — they did that for the tree terrorist) and the call is routed to the duty officer at the appropriate precinct. But by the time I am shooting, I have already been in contact with that person.

Before I shoot (a couple hours, usually) I call into the duty officer of the local precinct. I tell them my name, that I am a photographer, and where/when I will be shooting. I explain that, just in case some overenthusiastic passerby calls me in as a suspicious person, I just want to save them a call. I offer them my cell number, and ask if they want my sosh or driver’s license number. I have never been taken up on this, but I would happily give it.

Why? Because al Qaida never does this.

Joking aside, this positions me as the rational person in the equation should some idiot phone me in. And if they do call me in, there almost certainly will not be a visit to the scene. (“We already know about him, sir.”)

I also get the duty officer’s name, in the tiny chance a cop just happens upon me and decides to stop. That way I can say that I checked in with [Officer Whoever] on the desk, hoping to keep them from wasting a call. That’s never happened, but I have a known name to drop just in case.