One such example of me being cross examined, was when I was up on the Fancher overpass last year. I was on the sidewalk loitering with my camera waiting for train action early one weekend morning. I may have looked directly down a few times to see what freight cars were beneath the overpass. Been doing it for years now.

Well, apparently when you do that, and your camera is not visible to traffic behind you, it could be construed as something scary. I then see a patrol car come up the bridge, and he looks over at me curiously. I'm not doing anything illegal, and I am not on public or RR property, so I just grin and nod. He drives down to the bottom of the bridge, and immediately flips a U-turn with squeelie tires, and guns it up the overpass with his blue & red roof lights all lit up. Double parks in the lane, and steps out to question me. The usual stuff. "What are you doing up here...?" and so on.

"I'm taking pictures of trains", I said.

He goes "Why would you be doing that?"

"It's a hobby of mine, and as far as I know, I'm not trespassing up here".

He asks "Where did you park your vehicle?" having not seen one in the vicinity.

"I took a bus", I said.

He then tells me "Well... somebody called 911 to report a jumper".

So I said, "I've been up here for an hour or more, and I haven't seen any". "Oh... wait... ME?"

"Someone didn't see your camera... and you were looking over the railing.", he said.

He asks for my ID, which I presented, and he called it in. Nothing on file. Gave it back.

We went back and forth a couple more times, and then when he realized he couldn't make me leave, he drove off. But he pulled into a dirt lot by Trent Ave and sat there for a while. Perhaps doing a report - or watching me to see what I would do".

I continued to hang out up there for another hour and a half. Taking pictures. After about 20 minutes, he drove away.

Whether someone actually called 911 on me was not confirmed. He may have been out cruising, and figured I was a good write-up, making up the tipster story. I don't know.

So this time, the camera wasn't a cop magnet. And in hindsight, I could have looked like a jumper to most folks, including him. My backpack was out of view to all.