It seems imperative to me that in every police encounter the citizens should be able to record the event. We know the cops do for record purposes (unless they turn it off or step outside vehicle camera range).
Reason.com: “Courts are expanding rights but cops are cracking down. Find out how to keep your footage, and yourself, out of trouble. Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public.” The Boston Police Department now explicitly instructs its officers not to arrest citizens openly recording them in public. Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you’re an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops”
Glik: http://aclum.org/sites/all/files/legal/glik_v_cunniffe/appeals_court_ruling.pdf
Wireless did this story on iPhones and cops in AZ: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wirele...earch-arrestee-iphones-anti-police-apps.shtml
Flex Your Rights did this interesting timeline on how this is evolving: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/e...oes-The-Fight-for-Our-Right-to-Record-Police/
Yet another reason to always keep your phone "clean" by erasing messages daily and before departing on a road trip.
My question is: is it legal (notice I did not say safe) for me to video/audio record cops in AZ? If anyone out there does this, can you provide some recommendations for equipment to carry on your person and in your car? I am also a consistent OCer in all my travels so that adds another wrinkle to any encounter.
Reason.com: “Courts are expanding rights but cops are cracking down. Find out how to keep your footage, and yourself, out of trouble. Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public.” The Boston Police Department now explicitly instructs its officers not to arrest citizens openly recording them in public. Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you’re an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops”
Glik: http://aclum.org/sites/all/files/legal/glik_v_cunniffe/appeals_court_ruling.pdf
Wireless did this story on iPhones and cops in AZ: http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wirele...earch-arrestee-iphones-anti-police-apps.shtml
Flex Your Rights did this interesting timeline on how this is evolving: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/e...oes-The-Fight-for-Our-Right-to-Record-Police/
Yet another reason to always keep your phone "clean" by erasing messages daily and before departing on a road trip.
My question is: is it legal (notice I did not say safe) for me to video/audio record cops in AZ? If anyone out there does this, can you provide some recommendations for equipment to carry on your person and in your car? I am also a consistent OCer in all my travels so that adds another wrinkle to any encounter.