Legal: Cops Detain ProPublica Photog Over Town Sign Pix

Here's another one from the post-9/11 annals of security obsession: A news photographer snapping pix of a town's sign in Texas found himself detained and aggressively questioned by cops in two squad cars, a rather edgy local FBI/Homeland Security agent and, last but not least, a security guard from oil giant BP.

Police demanded to see the hapless photog's pictures and even passed his name on to the BP sluggo, despite the fact that it was clear from the pix nothing of any security value was on the camera. Read freelancer Lance Rosenfield's account at the ProPublica site here. (ProPublica had hired Rosenfield to snap the pix for two exposés on BP, linked in that item.) And here is ProPublica's response to the incident.