Search Results for: 54953.5(a) recording – Page 2

Setting aside First Amendment protections, a federal appeals court ruled that Denver police officers had qualified immunity in attempting to delete a citizen’s video of an arrest. Qualified immunity shields the police “from civil suits unless a previous court precedent outlines a case with almost exactly the same factual circumstances.” In practice the law allows police and other government agents to escape responsibility for irresponsible actions. (Reason, March 30, 2021, by Billy Binion) For related

A documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg was arrested in North Dakota for filming activists vandalizing pipelines bringing Canadian tar sands oil into the U.S. (PR Newswire, October 12, 2016) Two others were also arrested filming Climate Direct Action breaking into pipeline facilities and shutting off pipeline valves. Those arrested face charges of conspiring with the activists to commit “theft of property” or “theft of service.” The filmmakers face prison terms of 25 years. Two of the

After detaining a young photographer for recording police in action at a traffic stop, the Washington, D.C. police chief ordered his department to respect the rights of the public to record at crime scenes. In the process the American Civil Liberties Union negotiated some reasonable procedures for police conduct in case they suspect a citizen’s cell phone or other recording devices contains evidence of a crime. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a Florida case involving a secret recording in a police chief’s office that allegedly violated Florida’s wiretapping laws that require all participants to agree to a recording. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in 2017 that since the chief did not tell the man recording their meeting that the meeting was private he had “no expectation” of privacy. (Miami New Times, June 5, 2018, by Jerry

In a stunning decision, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a Homestead, Florida man could secretly record a meeting with the police chief since the chief did not designate the meeting as private. A Florida law requires the consent of the person being recorded, but the court found that the meeting fell under open-government expectations subject to “sunshine” provisions with “all attendees of the meeting…either public employees acting in furtherance of their

Citizens recording police have been arrested damaging the movement for greater transparency of police activities. The International Documentary Association has now petitioned the Justice Department to intervene to protect citizens who document police violence. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, August 25, 2016, by Shahid Bukttar) Several citizens across the country have been arrested recently including Chris LeDay who uploaded a video of the Baton Rouge Police shooting of Alton Sterling in July. LeDay spent 26 hours in