Illegal to record police in public (12 states) - is it constitutional?

[Ceiling Cat]

Can you apply ease dropping laws on recording police in public, can it stand a constutional challenge?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1ce_1314832958

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Even in Russia you can record the police in public.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1bb_1314824249

 

[sleazure]

I think there were a few stories on the Huff about people getting charged with this.

I suppose the idea was to keep the undesirables from using their phonecams to harass cops.

However, it makes stuff like the Rodney King tape illegal. Kinda scary. Gotta wonder if the courts will let it stand.

 

[sleazure]

Now that I've read the blog entry, it says that the news report is full of errors.

The report gets a few things wrong, most notably the assertion recording cops is "illegal in a dozen states".

Except in Illinois and Massachusetts, it's only eavesdropping if there is an expectation of privacy. The other 10 states have spelled that out in the statute.

Unfortunately, this isn't stopping the cops from laying charges.

Here's the guy who was quoted in your link. He spells it out fairly clearly. http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/29/maryland-cops-say-its-illegal

 

[Aardvark154]

Can you apply ease dropping laws on recording police in public, can it stand a constutional challenge?

I believe you mean eavesdropping do you not?

 

[Aardvark154]

Illegal to record police in public (12 states) - is it constitutional?

Mister Cat it certainly has been held Constitutional in some of those states and since it has never successfully gone up through a Federal appeal based on the U.S. Constituion, we don't truly know the answer.

 

[sleazure]

Here's a story about a Maryland case. Anthony Graber was charged for posting a Utube video of a trooper in street clothes pulling him over and rousting him at gunpoint.

The judge threw the case out, saying that a cop on duty in a public place has no expectation of privacy, so it wasn't eavesdropping.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/judg...inst-motorcyclist-for-recording-traffic-stop/

 

[Ceiling Cat]

I believe you mean eavesdropping do you not?

Thank you for the correction, not ever having had the need to use the word it is my spelling error.