Donny

Nice post.

I had two local police detectives show up at my door on Dec. 3rd. A local neighbor saw girls coming and going all the time so he called the detectives and told them I might be running a prostitution ring. One of the detectives did some checking on me (before visiting of course) and found my websites. He and his partner came to the door. They asked if I would let them in and I invited them both inside. There was a model here for a shoot at the time so I asked if my girlfriend could take her home while we talked. They questioned the girl briefly and then let them leave. They asked a lot of questions. I showed them around, gave them a copy of the model releases that I used, showed them ID's, let them see whatever they wanted. We were polite with each other and I told them they could come in any time they wanted. The detective was impressed by all the legal steps I take to keep everything legit. He told me that he'd never faced a local porn producer and that he'd honestly had to contact federal authorities to see how to proceed. He told me that as far as he knew I wasn't breaking any zoning laws because he'd already checked my city business license and noticed I was licensed to run a photography studio from my home.

He followed up with me and assured me that I could run the business from my home as long as I had fewer than 10 cars per day coming and going. The most I usually have is 5 so I'm well within the zoning laws.

They also asked me to help them out... he told me that he was sure that local sickos would eventually contact me asking for "weird things" (he left that open ended) and asked me to let him know if anyone bothered me or wanted anything illegal.

Since my dad is in law enforcement in another city, and I know how these men are doing the best job they could, I feel happy to help any way I can.

I was also counseled that some of my neighbors have very conservative viewpoints and that he wouldn't put it past them to key my car or throw rocks through my windows if they decided they didn't like having a porn photographer in the neighborhood. He told me they have no legal recourse against me so they may resort to such tactics. I took that advice and found a 2,900 sq. ft office/house in a business district that I'm moving into this week. It's set up perfect for photo shoots.

My thoughts on law enforcement are that they are men doing their jobs to feed their families. If you are nice to them, they'll be nice to you. Keep your attitude under control and be friendly and they'll be cordial in return... and if you're doing something illegal they'll cordially arrest you.