The latest craze to take the internet by storm is capturing cityscapes from staggering heights.
These photos are often captured by illegally climbing on top of abandoned buildings or construction sites, or by getting on top of the tallest skyscrapers in the city.
The end result? Eye-popping images that show a unique perspective of the city that you might otherwise never get to see.
Now, due to raising concern over the safety of photographers, Toronto police are calling for an end to rooftop photography. While there haven’t been any deaths in Toronto, there have been two deaths linked to rooftopping elsewhere in the last year.
A 17-year-old man fell off a building in Russia and a 24-year-old New Yorker slipped off the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. In 2012, a photographer died after he fell into a Chicago building’s smokestack. “We can’t bat 1,000 on this. I believe that eventually somebody is going to make a mistake, and it will be a critical one,” said Toronto Police Const. David Hopkinson, who has already arrested a number of rooftop photographers. He believes it’s only a matter of time before one of these deaths takes place on Canadian soil.
Despite the obvious dangers of climbing to the top of a skyscraper and dangling over the edge to capture a perfect shot, photographers are showing no signs of slowing down. Toronto is currently the most popular spot to take rooftop photos in Canada, with other photographers snapping pics in Montreal, Calgary, Quebec and Vancouver. Hopkinson told the CBC that “rooftoppers can be charged with trespassing as well as both mischief or break-and-enter under the Criminal Code, but if the court finds rooftoppers aren’t trying to steal property, the charges can sometimes be dropped.”
Other offences the photographers could be charged with include property damage charges if building locks or fences are broken. “I’ve arrested five guys myself getting into one of the buildings in the downtown core. The courts decide ultimately what happens in regards to charges. We put people in front of the courts where we have a belief that somebody has committed an offence,” said Hopkinson. The move comes as a preventative measure to ensure civilian safety, but just as graffiti artists continue to go into NYC tunnels, it probably won’t stop those committed to their craft.
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