Color of Law Tested in Hungary

Private Security

Just recently, in Hungary, a law was passed that made taking pictures in public without all subjects' permission was now illegal. Like in the United States, photographers were allowed to blur out people's photos previously. Yet, there was a freedom to take pictures of public spaces and the streets, potentially capturing police or private security actions in the progress, as has been seen all over the world with the explosion of social media.

The idea behind the ban is to protect the privacy of the citizens of Hungary. This is a perfectly valid point, as privacy needs to be ensured to citizens in such a potentially dangerous digital age, where anything can be leaked online. Essentially, the ban protects the citizens' rights to privacy (Cade, 2014). It is meant to ensure that no personal damages are caused because of personal filming.

However, there is also a darker side to this law that may make the previous point not worth the potential risk. In this, the counterpoint is that it also potentially hinders abuses of law enforcement, both public and private, from being captured live. According to the report, "in Hungary reporters already have to blur out police men's faces when they take their picture, something that many hoped this law would remedy by identifying police as 'public actors.' Instead, the law makes it much easier for police and private security to keep photojournalists and even members of the public from documenting their actions" (Cade, 2014). This is a cause of concern for some social activists, and the world will just have to watch and see how it affects the reputation of private security in Hungary. This only augments the "stumbling block, at least perceptually, [that] is public law enforcement's attitude of superiority" (Private Security 272). Private law enforcement is supposed to provide a moral service for the community (Private Security 276). If private officers are conducting actions they would not be ashamed of to admit to, there are questions raised in regards to the nature of the service being provided.

This is all going on at a time where the Minister of Interior is being linked to increasing dependence on private security in government actions in the country of Hungary. Sandor Pinter owned a lucrative private security firm before being elected in 2010 (Petho, 2014). The Minister of Interior "says he has no links with the private security firm that he sold in 2010 and that has continued to gain one lucrative government contract after another" (Petho, 2014). This creates a situation where it may be much harder to tell the color of law in regards to the actions of private security in Hungary. The color of law is the notion of an action that is conducted with the belief that the law mitigates such action based on unique circumstances. It is a notion that allows officers to think quickly and respond to individual situations as they arise in the field of such a dangerous industry. Private security officers have to deal with the same decisions, but this is often a situation which can raise a lot of eyebrows. The nature of actions under the color of law being complicated in regards to potential evidence and action taken.