Channel 46 reporter, photographer arrested at City Hall East

A local television news crew was arrested Friday when trying to enter a public area of Atlanta City Hall East, officials said.

The Atlanta Police Department officer who arrested the WGCL Channel 46 employees believed that they weren’t supposed to be in the building if they weren’t conducting city business, police said.

The crew was reporting on billing troubles at the city’s Department of Watershed Management that have led to customers having their water shut off.

Reporter Renee Starzyk and photographer Jeff Thorn were handcuffed for about an hour after entering an area where people go to pay water bills, said Channel 46 news and digital director Steve Schwaid.

“If the public is there, you are allowed to be there,” Schwaid told his crew, who then proceeded past a security checkpoint. “It’s a place we have been before, and a place that is clearly open to the public.”

Deputy Police Chief Carlos Banda called the incident a “misunderstanding” after learning of the situation.

The officer, E.R. Murray, was told to release the pair after the city’s Legal Department determined they were allowed in the building. Neither was charged.

Banda said the incident was under investigation.

“Allegedly, there’s a source that told [private] security and the police officer that City Hall was closed except for people coming to pay water bills, and nobody else was supposed to be in City Hall,” he said.

Banda met the crew and Schwaid at the scene and apologized to Thorn and Starzyk.

“I said there was a misunderstanding of the interpretation of the law, and apologize if this was an inconvenience,” he said.