The Seattle Police Department’s internal investigations unit is reviewing an incident on Friday, May 8, in which officers arrested and banned a Seattle man from the downtown REI after he used his phone to photograph two security guards inside the store.
Shane Becker, a 29-year-old web designer, says he was standing in line at REI, getting ready to purchase a bike rack lock, when he saw two Loomis Fargo security guards refilling an ATM inside the store.
Becker says he walked over and took a picture of the security guards and the open ATM with his phone because he is "fascinated by the insides of things that we don't normally get to see."
The verboten photo, via IamShane.com
According to Becker, the armed security guards confronted him about the photo and threatened to tackle him if he tried to leave the store. "Loomis wanted my ID so that they could write a report internally because I took a picture of them with the machine open," Becker says. "They said they didn't know who I was or what I intended to do with the photograph or why I would want to take it." Becker refused to show the Loomis employees his ID, REI security got involved, and the police were called.
According to a police report, when officers arrived, one of the armed Loomis guards told them he was concerned about his safety and was not sure if Becker was going to attempt to grab the money that was going into the ATM machine.
Police claim Becker was uncooperative and refused to give them his ID. Becker acknowledges that he refused to provide officers with ID, but did so because he was afraid they would hand it over to Loomis. Ironically, Becker says another REI customer photographed his arrest, and he's hoping to get a copy of the photo.
Police took Becker to the West Precinct and held him for about half an hour before requiring him to sign a Trespass Admonishment card, barring him from returning to REI for a year, and released him.
Kara Stone, general manager at REI's downtown store, says the incident was "super unfortunate" and claims Becker was not trespassed at the request of REI staff, although SPD records indicate otherwise. "Shane is welcome to come into our store," she says.
Frank, the guy who answered the phone at Loomis's office—he would not provide his last name or position with the company—would not comment on the incident or whether Loomis has any company policies about photography of staff members.
Not only was REI, SPD, and Loomis's overreaction to the incident totally ridiculous, it may have also been illegal.
Doug Klunder, Privacy Project director at the Seattle branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, says cases like Becker's are becoming more frequent. "These come up all the time and the ultimate answer ends up being, yes [the photographer] had the right to take the photo and should not have been arrested and detained," Klunder says. "It would be really nice if officers would start realizing that rather than going through this rigmarole."
Becker, who says he's been an REI customer for several years, says he'll be contacting the ACLU about the incident, but he also wants to find a way to spend the $200 REI dividend he wasn't able to use last week. For now, he says, "I won't be shopping there."
