Woman fined nearly £600 for photo of illegally parked police auto

Responding to queries about how the post had jeopardised the police, Portillo told Spanish news site Petreraldia, that the officers felt that the woman had impugned their honour by posting the picture.

While authorities in the United States are working to equip police officers with body cameras to cut abuse and violence, Spain has enacted a new gagging rule barring citizens from sharing photos of law enforcement officials.

As the Guardian reports, the incident was captured by a woman in southern Spain.

Local police spokesman Fernando Portillo explained that the officers had to park in the disabled bay because they had arrived to deal with a vandalism case in a nearby park and were in a hurry to catch the perpetrators.

The law allows for the woman, who has not been identified, to be fined between 600 euros ($660) and 30,000 euros for use of unauthorized police images.

The picture, taken by an unnamed woman from Petrer in Alicante, was put up online with the caption “Park wherever the hell you like and they won’t even fine you”. The city chose to impose a fine, although, as the spokesman claimed, they would have preferred “a different solution”.

Spaniards have nicknamed the Public Safety Act the “gag” law, and with good reason if it means a photo of police wrongdoing (whether authorised or not) can result in a fine.

But how exactly did a Facebook photo of a cop auto in a disabled parking space lead to an €800 fine? It has been condemned by Amnesty global, which maintains that it is sometimes necessary to take photos of law enforcement to establish if they have used excessive force.

The gagging law also prohibits demonstrations in the vicinity of parliament or the senate, trying to prevent an eviction or actions of passive resistance such as sit-down protests in the street.