Do you have the right to record police officers?
Several people have asked me to post a state-by-state rundown of laws
pertaining to citizens’ right to record on-duty police officers.
There’s been a lot of bad reporting on this issue, which I think is the
source of much of the confusion. (This PC World outline of the various legal issues involved is very good.)
It boils down to this: In every state but Illinois and Massachusetts,
you are perfectly within your legal rights to record or photograph an
on-duty police officer, so long as you don’t physically interfere with
him. In Massachusetts, you’re free to record so long as you do so
openly, though this month’s First Circuit ruling suggests that even the
prohibition on secret recording in public spaces may soon be overturned.
In Illinois, it’s still illegal to record on-duty cops without their
permission. The law is currently being challenged, and was recently
found to be unconstitutional by one state judge but that decision only
applied to the case before him.
Here’s the catch: Even though it’s perfectly legal to record and
photograph cops in all 48 other states plus the District of Columbia,
the police can still arrest you for doing so. They can also
still threaten you, then can still take away your camera, they can still
destroy your photos or video, and they can still destroy your camera.
All of these things are illegal. They aren’t supposed to do them. But they still do.
