If a cop tells you to "put the camera down" do I have to?

Quad Kings

Last month, Brian Kelly of Carlisle, Pa., was riding with a friend when the car he was in was pulled over by a local police officer. Kelly, an amateur videographer, had his video camera with him and decided to record the traffic stop.

The officer who pulled over the vehicle saw the camera and demanded Kelly hand it over. Kelly obliged. Soon after, six more police officers pulled up. They arrested Kelly on charges of violating an outdated Pennsylvania wiretapping law that forbids audio recordings of any second party without their permission. In this case, that party was the police officer.

Kelly was charged with a felony, spent 26 hours in jail, and faces up to 10 years in prison. All for merely recording a police officer, a public servant, while he was on the job.

There's been a rash of arrests of late for videotaping police, and it's a disturbing development. Last year, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly threatened Internet activist Mary T. Jean with arrest and felony prosecution for posting a video to her website of state police swarming a home and arresting a man without a warrant.

Michael Gannon of New Hampshire was also arrested on felony wiretapping charges last year after recording a police officer who was being verbally abusive on his
doorstep. Photojournalist Carlos Miller was arrested in February of this year after taking pictures of on-duty police officers in Miami.

And Philadelphia student Neftaly Cruz was arrested last year after he took pictures of a drug bust with his cell phone.

As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they're given extraordinary power and authority we don't give to other public servants: They're armed; they can make arrests; they're allowed to break the very laws they're paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us
without our consent.

It's critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they're on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you're treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses. In the age of YouTube, video of police misconduct captured
by private citizens can have an enormous impact.

Consider Eugene Siler. In 2005, the Campbell County, Tenn., man was confronted by five sheriff's deputies who (they say) suspected him of drug activity. Siler's wife surreptitiously switched on a tape recorder when the police officers came inside. Over the next hour, Siler was
mercilessly beaten and tortured by the officers, who were demanding he confess to drug activity. Siler was poor, illiterate and had a nonviolent criminal record. Without that recording, it's unlikely
anyone would have believed his account of the torture over the word of five sheriff's deputies.

Earlier this year, Iraq war veteran Elio Carrion was shot three times at near-point-blank range by San Bernardino, Calif., deputy Ivory Webb. Carrion was lying on the ground and was unarmed. Video of the arrest and shooting, however, was captured by bystander Jose Louis Valdez. Webb since has been fired from the police department and is on trial on charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. The video is the key piece of evidence in his trial.

While it's possible that police and prosecutors would have believed Carrion's version of events over Webb's even without the video, it seems unlikely. Webb is the first officer to be indicted in the history of the San Bernardino Police Department.

These are merely recent examples. There are more.

Many police departments across the country recently have added roof-mounted cameras to patrol cars that record traffic all stops.

This is a positive development, and protects not just citizens from rogue cops, but cops from citizens who make frivolous complaints. I've argued in the past that other police activities should be recorded, particularly SWAT-style raids that involve forced entry into private homes.

But it shouldn't end there. Legislators need to repeal laws explicitly forbidding the recording, photographing or videotaping of police officers. And to the extent that more generalized wiretapping laws meant for the general public also apply to the police, they should be amended to allow private citizens to record officers while they're on duty.

This isn't to say police don't have the same privacy rights as everyone else. They do â€” when they aren't on duty, in possession of a sidearm and carrying with them the authority that
comes with enforcing the law of the state.

But while they're on duty, they serve the public. And the public, their employer, should have
every right to keep them accountable.

Radley Balko is a senior editor with Reason magazine. He publishes the weblog, TheAgitator.com.

Respond to Writer

Jen

No just stand there and let him taser you, great footage :)
Jenxx

John de Witt

No, you have the right to keep filming. Of course, he has the right to make sure it isn't a weapon, and assuming he's level-headed enough not to just shoot you, you can reconsider your decision as the camera goes skittering across the floor/pavement. He may even carry it for you in the front seat while you get a free ride in the rear seat of the patrol car.

pearl_hoff

yes you do

Earthling

No.
He is YOUR employee. YOUR taxes pay him to obey the law and enforce it. You have every right to film your tax dollars at work.
It is a privilege than you can exercise.
Some of the cops in my area have caused me to be concerned.
I've covered my butt and filmed them when they are not behaving as a law enforcement officer should.
They don't know it (although maybe they do NOW), but my butt is covered!

goofie

yes unless you want to piss him off

Nicole

If you don't, you may lose your camera or get your but kicked!

Hollister Girl!â™¥

Gwen H

YEA if a cop tells u to do something u need to do it or u could get fined.

Twilight Brigade

my opinion is yes, there must be a good reason for it

Net Blaster

u better...bcs it's not yr right to take someone's film without asking for permission....if u're on a wonder site and there are specific rules, then u better follow them...the rules are there for a reason....

Munya Says: DUH!

You'd be wise if you put it down and apologized profusely. OR ran like hell---whatever you can do the fastest--put the camera down or run like hell.

â™¥Janaeâ™¥

I think it would be a good idea :-).

gablueliner

If he is giving you a legal directive, then by all means you better put it down...otherwise he'll probalby put you and the camera down.

Scott K

I would say no. Even more so, I would think that it would be in the cop's best interest to make sure any potential evidence was documentable as a result of the camera. Wouldn't you want the picture to prove you were innocent of any wrong doing?

You really should. You can be arrested for disorderly conduct. Why would you be filming him anyway? He's just trying to do his job.

MediSin

You need his permission to film him.

Anyway, in this day and age (as the old people say), they can do whatever they want to you under the dubious justification of anti-terrorism laws - doesn't matter what you were doing at the time. So be good and do what the nice policeman says...

Kellie21

Yes you do, if he tells you too. But if he can't see the camera then he won't say anything....But it is the police officers right not to have a camera filming him or taking pictures....

MaGg0t

no its your right to be able to do it...

Croaker

no you do not.

it is amazing so many people say yea to this.

Dawnald

You don't have to...In Canada anyways :D

The ONE

Yes you do. But that does not mean you have to stop recording just put it down and point it up towards his face.

Heart-Is-Aching

i guess it depends on what you were doing to make him say put the camera down.
most likely, unless you want to be arrested, i would do what the cop says.

traciabrooke

I feel like you need a person's permission to film them, like one of the above answers states. I know that you must have a person's permission, by law, to record their voice on tape, so I imagine it'd be the same. If you are recording someone and you don't tell them, it's illegal.

Luigi Jasonpahaf

a cop have limited power but i think it depends on:

A) if you are in a public place; hell you have the right, don't do it, if you don't want to.

B) if you are in private place, there could be some restrictions

C) if you are in the police station.

better ask a reporter or the press

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=lC7b9zLlK_4&feature=related

controversial, hu?

Romeo (786)

not really. It depends on the situation.

John J

Ali

if you were braking the law or something but if ur just filming then hell no he doesnt have a right

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