Metrorail Incident Update
On July 29th, I sent a letter to several officials at Miami-Dade County about the two incidents involving photographer Carlos Miller that had occurred at the Coconut Grove (37th Ave) Metrorail station earlier in the month. Last Monday, I received a response from the County Manager. The most significant portion of the response was the following paragraph:
“MDT [Miami-Dade Transit] met with the security contractor and stressed the right of the public to photograph in the common areas of its public facilities. To that end, all contracted security officers have been retained on the appropriate manner in which to enforce Miami-Dade County Code of Ordinances, Part III, Chapter 30B-5, governing photography on the transit system, and a copy of the aforementioned code has been placed at all MDT Metrorail security kiosks.”
I had specifically asked for retraining of the security officers who were involved in the incidents, and was very happy to hear that all MDT security contractors had been retrained. This is a small but significant victory in the fight to protect our First Amendment rights, and I applaud the professional handling of this complaint by the County Manager’s office. You can read the entire letter here.
-Stephen Murray
