Celebs and Cops Fight Back Against Paparazzi

Jan. 22, 2008 — -- In an irony befitting a Hollywood comedy, the paparazzi, who make a living off documenting celebrities' exploits on film, may soon have the cameras turned on them — by the cops.

Flash-weary celebs have long fought a frustrating battle against the intrusive tactics of the paparazzi. Not a week seems to go by without at least a few YouTube videos documenting the war, including scenes of Gwyneth Paltrow's husband, Chris Martin, grabbing a photographer and pushing him down on the ground while grabbing his camera, or Icelandic pixie, Bjork, ripping the shirt off the back of a reporter.

Last week, celebrities gained a crucial new ally — the police.

The LAPD and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Office have started to crack down on the hordes of photographers who block Hollywood traffic in their feverish efforts to get shots of Britney Spears' latest boyfriend, Jessica Alba's baby bump, or Paris Hilton's newest fender bender.

Last Wednesday night, four photographers, who got into a high-speed chase, while tailing Spears in the city's San Fernando Valley, were arrested on suspicion of reckless driving. Their cars followed Spears' white Mercedes Benz too closely, traveling at unsafe speeds, and making unsafe lane changes, said an LAPD spokesman.

And sheriff's deputies in West Hollywood cited a few shutterbugs, and detained a couple of them for questioning, after they stopped their cars in the middle of Melrose Avenue to shoot Alba outside a gym. "We shut down the street for 90 seconds, so she could leave, to prevent them from following her like a swarm of bees," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told ABCNEWS.com.

The sheriff's office insists that it's not a crackdown; rather, a response to an enormous increase in complaints.

In 2005, the West Hollywood station received about one complaint a week about paparazzi, according to Whitmore.