Are there any US laws against filming the police?

[Tom_Tildrum]

@Great_Antibob

The laws on filming people with or without their consent vary from state to state. In some states, you only need the consent of one party, so the person with the camera can give that consent.

In other states, all parties must consent.

I suspect that you may be thinking of audio recording, and I’m not sure that those laws encompass video.

[dstarfire]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

Really. It’s either legal or it isn’t; it doesn’t depend on whether the person is suing the police or has filed complaints in the past.

In a court of law, that is true. However, this is an internet forum where we’re free to make all sorts of inferences from such information. Combined that bit with the loud music and barking dog information and you arrive at the conclusion that while filming the police is legal, it doesn’t excuse other illegal behaviors. I’d certainly hope police would arrest a jackass that pulled up next to them with his music blasting.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

As I tell people ticketed for excessive noise - it’s fine to enjoy your music, just don’t force other people to enjoy it with you.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@dstarfire

I’d certainly hope police would arrest a jackass that pulled up next to them with his music blasting.

You don’t think that might be a slight overreaction?

[lel]

I’ve stood on a sidewalk and taken photos of police before. There were probably a dozen of us taking pictures and the police didn’t say or do anything to us; they seemed more focused on the situation before them. (It looked to be something like illegal alcohol sale or consumption, but there was something like 20 police at the scene of one house.)

[voltaire]

@lel

I’ve stood on a sidewalk and taken photos of police before. There were probably a dozen of us taking pictures and the police didn’t say or do anything to us; they seemed more focused on the situation before them. (It looked to be something like illegal alcohol sale or consumption, but there was something like 20 police at the scene of one house.)

Where the heck do you live that the illegal consumption or sale of alcohol would require twenty policemen and attract a dozen onlookers taking pictures?! Yeesh!

[muldoonthief]

@Finagle

As a side issue, wouldn’t this make taking a video in public pretty much always illegal in Massachusetts? Take a video of your party at the local Olive Garden with a cell phone and you’re bound to be recording the conversations of those people around you. Seems like this is a law that’s in direct conflict with the current level of technology.

@LinusK

It would also mean all those surveillance cameras in shops and stores are illegal, as well as stop light cameras and dash cams in police cars.

The Massachusetts law only applies to audio recording, not video recording, so a store surveillance camera that didn’t record audio would be OK. There’s also an exception that law enforcement can record conversations that they’re a part of even if the other party doesn’t consent, so dash cameras are OK as well:

provided that it shall not constitute an interception for an investigative or law enforcement officer, as defined in this section, to record or transmit a wire or oral communication if the officer is a party to such communication or has been given prior authorization to record or transmit the communication by such a party and if recorded or transmitted in the course of an investigation of a designated offense as defined herein.

According to the DLMP, a federal appeals court ruled in 2011 that openly recording police activity is protected by the 1st Amendment, and cannot be prosecuted under any state wiretapping law:

However, in a 2011 case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that recording police activity in public is independently protected by the First Amendment, and that it is unconstitutional for the state to prosecute those recording the police in public under Massachusetts’s wiretapping law; this ruling might protect secret as well as open recordings.