PINAC

Photography is Not a Crime, abbreviated to PINAC and published under the trade names PINAC News, is an organization and news website that focuses on rights of civilians who photograph and film police and other government organizations in the United States. It was founded in 2007 following the arrest of its creator, Carlos Miller, a veteran news reporter and photojournalist, and incorporated in June 2014 as PINAC Inc., a Florida not for profit corporation.

In early 2007, Miller was on assignment for an article about the Biscayne Boulevard area of Miami, Florida. He observed five police officers interviewing an individual and began to take photographs. The officers asked Miller to move on, but he refused, informing them that he was on public property, where he held the right to photograph. The officers then arrested him for numerous misdemeanor offenses, including resisting arrest. Miller created the blog as a result of his arrest, the freedom of the press and free speech violations by the Miami Police Department, and his desire to educate the public on the issue of the right of Americans to document the activities of public officials in the performance of their duties.

PINAC focuses on First Amendment issues that intersect with governmental oppression of those rights, normally by police officers. It also gives civilians tips on how to interact with the police and assert their constitutionally protected rights.

A large number of police departments have harassed or made arrests of civilian photographers for charges such as obstruction and making terror threats.

PINAC has covered a number of cases during which police officers have misused wiretapping laws against civilians such as Anthony Graber in Maryland. Graber was arrested after he posted a video of a police contact on YouTube.

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