Why Taylor Swift's Dad Was Investigated By Australian Police

Scott Taylor is best known for being a doting father to Taylor Swift and not for getting in trouble with authorities. Yet, between February and March 2024, Papa Swift was investigated by Australian police following an altercation with paparazzi that quickly escalated. Up until that point, though, Scott's presence on the Australian leg of Taylor's Eras Tour had been going smoothly. He had even been cultivating his own fan base for proving that even megastardom can't corrupt the essence of dorky dads.

On February 23, Scott was filmed distributing sandwiches to hungry concertgoers during Taylor's Sydney show. "Help yourselves," he can be heard saying in the video, smiling but focused. A few days before, Scott had spread his generosity once again during Taylor's concert in Melbourne, which opened the tour in Australia. While fans awaited the star to take the stage, Scott walked through the crowd handing out V.I.P. wristbands worth $2,000 to those who had been able to score only restricted-view seats from a batch of last-minute tickets released the previous day. 

Melbourne's 3AW radio station host Jacqui Felgate shared to Instagram a message she received from a person who knew a couple of the lucky concertgoers. "How generous and kind is papa Swift!!" the message read. It's hard to picture how this guy ended up on the police's radar, but he did. Scott stirred up controversy, with many defending that he was only performing his parental duties while others argued his actions and its results illustrate his privilege.

On February 26, an Australian paparazzo accused Scott Taylor of physically attacking him as he tried to take pictures of Taylor Swift, Reuters reported. Taylor said she and her team were the ones being attacked and threatened by a couple of photographers as they got of a yacht on Neutral Bay wharf in Sydney. "Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water," her rep said in a statement.

Photographer Ben McDonald filed a complaint, prompting a police investigation. In the document, McDonald contended Scott punched him after Taylor's security guards used umbrellas to prevent him from photographing her. Authorities wrapped up investigations on March 28, determining Scott's actions merited no charges. "No offenses were detected, and the investigation was concluded with no further police action required," New South Wales Police Force said in a statement, the AP reported.

The public reaction to the police decision was mixed. "The dude could kill someone and be let off scot free. She can do no wrong right?" one user wrote on X, previously known as Twitter. Many others agreed. "But if you or myself would've done it, we'd be in Season 13 Locked Up Abroad," wrote argued. Others believe Scott's reaction was warranted, given the paparazzi's notorious intrusive behavior. "Taylor's dad taught that paparazzi a lesson will never forget," an X user said.

Taylor Swift and her parents have always been close. Even though Scott and Andrea Swift are separated, they have continued to work together to advance their daughter's career. It's been that way since the beginning. "There are really two ways of looking at it when you're raising kids. You can either say, 'You can be whatever you want to be', and then there is actually believing it. My parents actually believed it," she told CMT. 

Because Scott and Andrea have been with Taylor every step of the way, friction was bound to happen. Taylor and Scott once clashed over politics, but her father was just trying to protect her. When Taylor was considering breaking her decade-long stance of distancing her public persona from political issues ahead of the 2018 Tennessee state elections, Scott tried to convince her not to do it. At the time, Taylor wanted to declare her support for the Democratic candidate trying to beat Marsha Blackburn, whom she was strongly against.

Taylor shared what she wanted to post with her parents and her team, but Scott worried Taylor could become a target for violent acts if she crossed that boundary. "I've read the entire thing and the bottom line right now, I'm terrified. I'm the guy that went out and bought armored cars," Scott told Taylor in a clip featured on the 2020 Netflix documentary "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana." Taylor did it anyway and helped boost voter registration across the country.