[Leica] Porn processors

[wvl@marinternet.com (Bill Lawlor)]

>While protecting kids is a laudable goal, someone has to get it through the
>heads of processors that kiddie porn purveyors don't use Boots or Costco for
>their processing.  I'd even bet most of them are using digital now, and
>nothing ever sees the inside of a lab.  All this extra vigilance does is
>ruin the lives of loving parents.
>
>I saw the same fears when I was shooting playground pics last year.  Cameras
>and kids are a dangerous mix these days (for the photographer, at least).
>
>Paul Chefurka


Paul, I also thought that it would be unlikely a criminal would use mass
consumer processing. However, a case a year or two ago in Novato, CA,
proved otherwise.

A local Long's Drugs has a choice of in-house 1 hour  photo service or less
expensive overnight service. A kiddie pornographer and molestor dropped off
incriminating rolls of color print film for the overnight service. It came
out at the trial that he chose that because such processing is automatic
with no operator viewing the negs or prints. It was his bad luck that the
in house lab finished its work early and started to process the overnight
stuff too. The operators spotted the porn and subsequent arrest and trial
of the offender revealed he had been preying on many childern, molesting
them and photographing his crimes. It was intimated at the trial that
selecting automatic film processsing is a known strategem of such perverts.

In the late 50's I worked summers during college in a big photofinishing
lab in Los Angeles. Routinely, any sexually explicit photos were printed in
multiple sets for the enjoyment of a group of senior employees and
managers. Then the negs were destroyed and the film reported lost to the
customer.

Bill Lawlor