Free Talk Live

For the fifth time in less than two months, Austin police arrested a man while video recording them in public. This time it was Joshua Pineda, 26, a member of the Peaceful Streets Project, the organization that focuses on video recording police as they interact with the public. But this time, they did not confiscate his phone, which most likely was a result of Pineda exercising his right to remain silent while incarcerated.

An incidental recording taken while a Florida woman was on the phone with her insurance company shows that the police who arrested her and charged her with a felony for resisting arrest lied in their reports, and then again under questioning.

Sarasota County also arrests people just for filming a cop in action... seems cops lied about the arrest

Illinois charges you with a Class I felony for recording cops; it's punishable by 4 to 15 years in prison.

Illinois man faces five felony charges and 75 years in prison for recording on duty police officers.

The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that recording an in-person conversation without the knowledge of all parties is only a violation of federal wiretapping law if the person making the recording intends to use the recording for illegal purposes. At least in the states that do not have explicit laws against recording cops, this should nullify the abuses of wiretapping laws against people recording in public.

A U.S. Congressman has introduced a resolution that would protect citizens who videotape cops in public from getting arrested on state wiretapping charges.

Radley Balko and Carlos Miller interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation about recording the police.

From the website:
July 8, 2010 The Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King resonated, in part, because it was caught on video. Now, most modern cell phones have video cameras. Many police departments struggle to draw the line between citizens' and journalists' rights to film arrests, and their officers' rights to privacy.

A Maryland man now faces up to five years in prison after he recorded his traffic stop last month in Harford County. Graber was speeding with his motorcycle with a camera attached to his helmet recording his ride.