Question: Recording Police

I want to know what the law is regarding recording Police in the United States.

I tried to find my answer through google, but couldn't find a straight answer and yet there are hundreds of videos on youtube, with guys recording Police Officers at pull overs, demonstrations, arresting etc.

Nobody seems to be disallowing the recording.

I know that you are are not allowed to record the Police in doing whatsoever in Germany and Greece.

Thank you


P.S. If this is the wrong Category please move the Thread

Originally posted by Hellas
I want to know what the law is regarding recording Police in the United States.

I tried to find my answer through google, but couldn't find a straight answer and yet there are hundreds of videos on youtube, with guys recording Police Officers at pull overs, demonstrations, arresting etc.

Nobody seems to be disallowing the recording.

I know that you are are not allowed to record the Police in doing whatsoever in Germany and Greece.

Thank you


P.S. If this is the wrong Category please move the Thread

edit on 7-12-2011 by Hellas because: (no reason given)

In my opinnion it will start a uprise the more videos of police brutality the more people defend each other as a whole, which i belive than would give the president right to declare marshal law.Idk just rambling before dinner

reply to post by mik3ymik3


Where was the up-roar and outrage

when cops shot innocent people during/after Katrina?

Or people in Detroit years ago shot by machine gun fire during demonstrations?

What's gonna change

Originally posted by CitizenNum287119327
reply to post by mik3ymik3

 

Where was the up-roar and outrage

when cops shot innocent people during/after Katrina?

Or people in Detroit years ago shot by machine gun fire during demonstrations?

What's gonna change

ONly thing that is going to change is the clip in the gun.

If you're doing it in a public place, it is legal.

Cops don't care about the law, however. Their mentality is that they can say jump, and you are supposed to say how high. If you do anything they don't like, they can either beat you up, or falsely arrest you first, and THEN beat you up in custody, and then get away with it by telling their superiors that they either believed you were a terrorist suspect, or you were resisting arrest.

Originally posted by petrus4
If you're doing it in a public place, it is legal.

Cops don't care about the law, however. Their mentality is that they can say jump, and you are supposed to say how high. If you do anything they don't like, they can either beat you up, or falsely arrest you first, and THEN beat you up in custody, and then get away with it by telling their superiors that they either believed you were a terrorist suspect, or you were resisting arrest.

Well aren't you giving a person that YOU pay a lot of rights over you? Because playing the "terrorist" card for example and getting away with it is at least laughable. Even the way they're talking to you guys over there is disgraceful..

Pointing the gun at you and screaming "GET OUT OF THE DAMN CAR NOW!!!" ?? Really??

Originally posted by Hellas

Originally posted by petrus4
If you're doing it in a public place, it is legal.

Cops don't care about the law, however. Their mentality is that they can say jump, and you are supposed to say how high. If you do anything they don't like, they can either beat you up, or falsely arrest you first, and THEN beat you up in custody, and then get away with it by telling their superiors that they either believed you were a terrorist suspect, or you were resisting arrest.

Well aren't you giving a person that YOU pay a lot of rights over you? Because playing the "terrorist" card for example and getting away with it is at least laughable. Even the way they're talking to you guys over there is disgraceful..

Pointing the gun at you and screaming "GET OUT OF THE DAMN CAR NOW!!!" ?? Really??

edit on 7-12-2011 by Hellas because: (no reason given)

Well, that's just the way things are done here in the USA. According to our deeply-ingrained collective mindset, everything must quickly escalate to the worst possible situation. Every time Iran blinks, it means we must inevitably go to war with them. Same with China. Every time some douchebag fails to stop within 2 blocks when a cop flashes his lights, then he must be violently subdued.

We as Americans would feel completely emasculated if we had to accept the proposition that there may be a sane, non-violent way to talk and compromise our way back from the brink of disaster. No, we must rush headlong into impending doom, and if it isn't as bad as we thought it was going to be, we must make it that bad, or worse.

We catch catfish fifteen feet long, we drive SUVs that burn the value of Chad's GDP in gasoline every four miles, we must resort to war and invasion as our sole response to every international spat, and every time a cop looks at you funny, we must plan a revolution.

It's just who we are.

reply to post by vexati0n


And how come you just let this go through?

I mean it obviously bugs you

reply to post by Hellas


This is the law, I was going to write a thread about it. You have to be an psychologically attacking individual to become a cop in the US. They are predators on society with the mind of a tiger. This is a turn on for some people because they like adrenaline. I dislike adrenaline, energy drinks, speed...it's kind of all the same nature. If you don't have that kind of mind or charisma then you will not make enough tickets to get paid. I guarantee you from growing up in the US that I know police will do unreasonable things because they have to get this quota in by the end of the month.

That's why the mind of me is so different from a cop, I can never invade on anyone like that. I am about complete peace, I am so peaceful that exclaiming to you seems rowdy, let alone telling anybody. I walk with peace and utter respect for all, and yes I do love. So in this spiritual world I can equivalate love and hate.

Hmmm le'ts think about this for a minute. You are going out of your way to try and film police officers on the job in an attempt to hope you catch them doing something wrong on film. Of course they will object and resist to this. I don't want anyone taping me at my job in the hopes of catching me doing something wrong.

Originally posted by petrus4
If you're doing it in a public place, it is legal.

Cops don't care about the law, however. Their mentality is that they can say jump, and you are supposed to say how high. If you do anything they don't like, they can either beat you up, or falsely arrest you first, and THEN beat you up in custody, and then get away with it by telling their superiors that they either believed you were a terrorist suspect, or you were resisting arrest.

Yeah they will do all that and more. Legal or not be ready for some "contempt of cop" attitude and a half-dozen bunk charges being thrown at you just to see if you'll blink first.

Time lost being held, money lost from missing work and paying fees and defense.

You can be screwed six ways to Sunday without ever breaking a law if they want to screw you.

Then they blame you for it all because you taped them even though they're taped by their own dash cams (as long as they dont turn them off) and theyre taped by all the surrounding surveillance equipment of nearby homes and businesses. They hate their lives and hate their jobs and they hate all of us so they go after you for taping because you're conveniently right in front of them rather than logically extending their perceived outrage toward every camera filming them including their own.

reply to post by Hellas

I want to know what the law is regarding recording Police in the United States.

I tried to find my answer through google, but couldn't find a straight answer and yet there are hundreds of videos on youtube, with guys recording Police Officers at pull overs, demonstrations, arresting etc.

This one is a bit of a gray area, as there are several areas that can come of concern.

First - state and local laws. The Constitution does not give you a right to record other people (though it, contrary to popular belief, does not give you a right to privacy, either). Therefor, states and local governments can, at least in theory, pass laws to ban recording of -their- police officers. ... Not that they'd have much luck enforcing it.

Second - Privacy Act.... this is where things can get a little odd. It is theoretically possible for a party to get a court-order issued to remove and/or destroy videos that contain information deemed to be protected under the Privacy Act. So, there is that.

Normally, however, police have dash-cameras and directional microphones that automatically turn on with the car's lights/siren. When an officer makes a traffic stop, the incident is recorded so that it can be reviewed at a later date - should an arrest be made, it is available for court documents - the same for tickets. It can also be used for internal review of policy - are officers behaving in a manner consistent with the training? Are the methods being taught effective, or are they leading to unsafe situations? Etc.

A request can be submitted to any department to have videos relevant to certain instances pulled and approved for public release. Requests for pending and/or ongoing investigations will likely be denied (as with any other requests for evidence of cases in a similar status).

However, filming police is allowable in most areas.

Unless a police officer has a distinctly bad attitude. Actions legal or not - it's probably best to not agitate the issue and simply report it to the department (and city council if it's a severe/ongoing issue and remains to be addressed).

I saw the video ( sorry don't have the link ) of the guy arrested for filming the police, somewhere in the U.S. Anyone have that video?