Recording Police is Now Illegal [View All]

[ilaughatrightwingers]

Due to recent internet videos of police brutality, at least three states have outlawed recording on-duty police officers. It doesn't matter if the encounter with police involves you, is necessary for your defense, or is in a public area, video recording on-duty police officers is now illegal.

The so-called legal basis for this rests on eavesdropping and wiretapping laws. In some states, all parties must consent to being recorded unless a TV news crew is doing the recording. Police never consent, and so the non-press camera operators can be arrested. Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland are among the 12 states with all-party consent laws.

Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall said, "Citizens have a particularly important role to play when the official conduct at issue is that of the police. Their role cannot be performed if citizens must fear criminal reprisals."

"The police are basing this claim on a ridiculous reading of the two-party consent surveillance law - requiring all parties to consent to being taped. I have written in the area of surveillance law and can say that this is utter nonsense," said Jonathan Turley, a professor and Legal scholar.

Most courts seem to support the ban on recording police, however. An Illinois court recently refused to drop the eavesdropping charges against Christopher Drew, who recorded himself being arrested for selling art on the Chicago streets without a permit. Eavesdropping is a Class I felony and carries from 4 to 15 years in prison.

In 2001, Michael Hyde of Massachusetts was also arrested for recording his encounter with police, and the court supported his imprisonment for doing so in a 4 to 2 decision.

A recent arrest in Maryland during the month of March also provides another example. John Graber III was pulled over for speeding by a plainclothes policeman in an unmarked car. The officer approached Graber while screaming and waving his gun. Graber wasn't arrested right away, but he had recorded his encounter with the cop and uploaded it to YouTube. The police, feeling embarrassed, secured a warrant for Graber's arrest and he is now being accused of wiretapping.

"It's more ‘contempt of cop' than the violation of the wiretapping law," said Baltimore criminal defense attorney Steven D. Silverman. He also stated that he had never heard of the police using the wiretapping law in this manner before Graber's arrest.

Carlos Miller of Photography is Not a Crime, apparently an expert on the matter, had this to say: "For the second time in less than a month, a police officer was convicted from evidence obtained from a videotape. The first officer to be convicted was New York City Police Officer Patrick Pogan, who would never have stood trial had it not been for a video posted on Youtube showing him body slamming a bicyclist before charging him with assault on an officer. The second officer to be convicted was Ottawa Hills (Ohio) Police Officer Thomas White, who shot a motorcyclist in the back after a traffic stop, permanently paralyzing the 24-year-old man."

However, Spring City and East Vincent Township of Pennsylvania have written into law that it is legal to record on-duty police in public places. This came as part of a settlement with the ACLU.
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From: http://partisan-news.blogspot.com/2010/06/recording-police-is-now-illegal.html