Photo Guidelines

We strive to enable fire and police vehicle enthusiasts to have the opportunity to share their photos with the community, all while showcasing vehicles from agencies from across the country. Some websites are meticulous about the photos they accept and others are not.

Our intention here is not to exclusively accept exceptional photographs - we welcome the majority of photographs, captured with anything from a cell phone to a fancy DSLR. However, while we plan to accept the majority of photos submitted, we want to ensure that the photos on the site maintain several simple characteristics and make sure that the photos belong to their authors.

• You are the photographer of all uploaded content, or hold the rights to the images.
• The photo contains at least one public safety vehicle, service vehicle, or station/facility
• The photo respects the privacy of the professionals who operate them
• The photo contains no graphic content

The majority of a vehicle (preferably all) is visible.

The hope is to photograph the entirety of at least one side of a vehicle. A photo that is cropped to show a minimal amount of the side of a vehicle in frame may not be accepted into the repository. Depending on the circumstances, the moderators may determine a photo to be relevant and accepted even though it may not show the entirety of a vehicle in frame.

The photo is not exceptionally grainy.

Blurry and grainy photos are, at times, okay! Sometimes photographers do not have access to an expensive camera. However, if a photo looks like it has been excessively cropped or zoomed in to the point where the photo is so blurry or grainy that no detail whatsoever can be seen on the vehicle or station/facility, then it will not be accepted.

The photo was taken without trespassing or the photo was taken with permission of the owner of the vehicle.

Ocassionally, one will have the opportunity to photograph vehicles inside facilities or in the back lot of state/city property. This is perfectly acceptable (and sometimes makes for some fantastic photos), as long as the photographer has received permission to be in the location they're taking the photo from.

The photo is not a duplicate of another photo already published in the repository.

Sometimes photos are uploaded multiple times or a photographer forgets that they have already submitted a photo in a previous upload. Photos that are duplicates of other photos in the repository will not be accepted.

The photographer identifies the vehicle(s) and/or station(s)/facility(ies) in the photo.

While the unit number/callsign of the vehicle does not necessarily have to be visible, the photographer must be able to tag the photo in the Tag step of the upload process with some sort of descriptive identifier. For example, many agencies have multiple shared administrative vehicles that do not have one specific callsign. While they can’t be identified as “Battalion 1,” they could be identified as a “Command Unit,” which will happily be accepted. However, a photo submitted where the vehicle can only be identified as “an engine” by the photographer but not cannot differentiate that vehicle from another identical engine (e.g. by fleet number, plate, callsign, etc.) will not be accepted.

Any questions regarding these guidelines can be directed to support@publicservicevehicles.com, or by messaging the PSV team on Facebook or Instagram.

In order to prevent spam, each user is limited to uploading 10 images during their first submission. After at least one photo is approved, a user can upload as many photos as they want.

Most of the time, a photo won’t be removed immediately. If there’s a concern with one of your photos, either during the review or later, it will be marked as flagged and appear on the Pending page. This may happen if a moderator is requesting additional information during the review process, or if a photo is reported and needs to be reviewed.

In the case that your photo is flagged, you can correspond with the moderators via email at support@publicservicevehicles.com.

• Contains Graphic/Inappropriate Content
• Disrespectful/Invades Privacy of Agency/Operators
• Not Relevant to Photo Repository
• Not Taken By Uploader/Without Permission
• Duplicate Photo