I saw a video of a guy videotaping the entrance to a Navy base. What does this do to our security protocols? How do we handle this?

It means that security at bases shouldn't rely on what is publicly seen from the street. That should just be the public facing facade.

Otherwise does that mean we arrest people who take pictures with their kids in front of the White House? That's an awful direction for our country to take. It just means security should be more nuance than what you see at the gate.

Any individual has a right to photograph what he can see in public, with very limited exceptions. 18 U.S.C. § 795 provides that the President can prohibit photography of military installations, and has done so with E.O. 10104 (1950). The problem that most base security/military police don't understand is that E.O. 10104 only prohibits the photography of "classified" equipment and structures.

So photography of a base entry control point is not a violation, while photography of a B-2 being loaded with nukes would be a violation.

From a security standpoint and from a legal standpoint, you can ask the individual to identify themselves but you can't seize their property (i.e., their camera). You have to comply with the law, and in most places, military personnel do not have the authority to detain someone off-base and civilian authorities cannot detain them absent reasonable, articulable suspicion that they have either committed or are about to commit a crime.

So if they are photographing the base entrance, smile, wave at them, and if you are really concerned, call the local cops to contact them. That puts the liability on the local cops, and not on you or the base.

P.S. - On base is a different matter. You'll want to check with your local MP/SP and/or JAG.

As an MP on base, we have observed that kind of activity. While still observing constitutional rights, WE have the right to investigate. There is nothing wrong with sending MP's to politely ask questions about why they are taking photos/video. On one occasion, it was actually a camera crew doing a report for school or something similar. If the response is given politely and the answer is sensible, "have a nice day. We appreciate your cooperation and we hope you understand why we approached you."

If it gets ugly and they are combative, try to get the license place/ID as normally and log it in. Depending on clues, intuition etc, it may be something to share with local PD and local fusion center.

No rights have been violated, our presence and vigilance is observed by would be bad guys, and we have done our job.