This is the police: put down your camera

Local, Politics 2 Minutes

This is the title of an article on NPR’s website, about a woman who was detained for taking video of an officer when he boarded the bus to deal with a drunk passenger. Joel Rose brings us the details.

Last year, Fitchette, who was 16 at the time, was riding a city bus in Newark, N.J., when two police officers got on to deal with a man who seemed to be drunk. Fitchette decided this would be a good moment to take out her phone and start recording.

“One of the officers told me to turn off my phone, because I was recording them,” she said. “I said no. And then she grabbed me and pulled me off the bus to the cop car, which was behind the bus.”

The police erased the video from Fitchette’s phone. She was handcuffed and spent the next two hours in the back of a squad car before she was released. No charges were filed.

Very courageous of this 16 year-old to question authority in this way. Many have now grown up with the ubiquity of cameras, video recorders, and even surveillance cameras. There seems to be a spate of these incidents going on. There have been several mentions of similar situations, where photography in public came into question, resulting in court procedures. These have been to a great degree upheld as to the First Amendment rights of the photographer.

In the same story, another citizen (on a motorcycle) was stopped by law enforcement, and the entire interaction was recorded on the motorcyclist’s helmet camera. Posting that video on the internet led to charges being filed against the motorist.

In a video from 2010, a state trooper in Maryland flashed his gun while pulling over motorcyclist Anthony Graber for speeding. When Graber posted the video from his helmet cam on YouTube, prosecutors charged him with breaking the state’s wiretapping law because he recorded the trooper’s voice without consent. A judge dismissed the case. But that hasn’t changed the opinion of some in the law enforcement community who say video recording is potentially dangerous for cops.

On a somewhat related note, a Maine legislator pulled a gun on a photographer in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot. I don’t think this was related to the other incidents. 🙂

Seriously though, we have a First Amendment, and it doesn’t include prohibiting taking photographs or video in public. The sooner law enforcement learns that, and obeys it, the better for the rights of all of us, professionals and hobbyists alike.

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7 thoughts on “This is the police: put down your camera”

  3. I cringe every time I hear one of these stories. That Maryland case still makes me fear for our rights. The incident was over, and there was simply an attempt to prevent dissemination of a video recording a past action.

    I strongly support law enforcement, but more importanbtly we need to support the Constitution.

    There either needs to be 1st Amendment caselaw or statutory protections so these incidents happen less.

  4. Just to play devil’s advocate —-

    If this were a situation where the police were behaving appropriately and had asked politely that the young lady stop the video, I would side with the folks we ask to put themselves in harms way to protect us and they were acting to protect the public.

    I don’t see the First Amendment infraction in the above scenario. The young lady was not a member of the Press. In this case, I don’t see video as speech, religion, assembly or petition.

    However, if a member of the public sees police abuse, the videoing would be appropriate as a way of protecting one’s self. That said, someone video taping mis-behavior should be doing so surreptitiously, or use the phone for a call to report the abuse.

    1. Doug, since I’m a member of the “lamestream” media maybe I shouldn’t be the one making this argument, but in the era of video camera phones and YouTube and blogs, we’re all the press. The only possible objection the police might have to someone filming their activity is that it might catch them doing something they shouldn’t. I can understand that. I wouldn’t want a video camera pointed at me all day either. But the public doesn’t pay my salary.

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