As long as I've been a photographer, I've never been hassled by anyone in an authority position besides some low-rent security guards who were making sure that I wasn't doing any commercial photography on private property.  In fact, one time when I was shooting the Mustangs of Las Colinas, I had a security guard confront me saying that I must be shooting professional, commercial photography because I was using a "camera with a lens on it", referring to my dSLR, of course.  I convinced him I wasn't without explaining to him that a camera, by definition, has a lens (well, except for pinhole cameras, if you want to be technical) and that everyone out there that day with their point and shoot cameras might as well have been accused of the same thing with that reasoning.

At any rate, my point is that I'm glad I still live in a (somewhat) free society, despite some of the ridiculous policies put in place in the name of "security" after 9/11, because the Metropolitan Police in London have apparently just declared war on photography:

 

This is pretty disturbing, as it encourages Londoners to turn in "odd" people taking photos...if you know anything about us photographers, it's that we're a pretty odd group of people (anyone who obsesses over color profiles and white balance has to be).

At any rate, London just dropped a few notches on my list of "must visit" places.