In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.
Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.
The legal justification for arresting the “shooter” rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited.
Equal justice:
In short, recordings that are flattering to the police – an officer kissing a baby or rescuing a dog – will almost certainly not result in prosecution even if they are done without all-party consent. The only people who seem prone to prosecution are those who embarrass or confront the police, or who somehow challenge the law. If true, then the prosecutions are a form of social control to discourage criticism of the police or simple dissent.
Smoking gun:
When the police act as though cameras were the equivalent of guns pointed at them, there is a sense in which they are correct. Cameras have become the most effective weapon that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse. And the police want it to stop.
Click through for some disturbing instances of video “shooters” charged and arrested. The story also mentions Carlos Miller’s Photography Is Not A Crime, a worthy regular read (I last linked to him here). And, of course, the ever-vigilant Radley Balko is quoted, “State legislatures should consider passing laws explicitly making it legal to record on-duty law enforcement officials.”
Agreed. And the cops should build public trust by supporting such legislation.
Via Overlawyered.
You can find me @jwindish, at my Public Notebook, or email me at joe-AT-joewindish-DOT-com.