In this thread we’re discussing whether or not it’s legal to film the police doing police-y things. The consensus seems to be that the Constitution protects your right to do so as long as you’re not interfering (unless you’re in Illinois, in which case state wiretapping statutes come into play).
What I’d like to discuss here in GD is whether or not this is a good thing to do. As you will see from some videos that I’m going to link downthread, some police are generally not into the idea. The problem with these videos is that those videos where the cops don’t make a stink about being filmed don’t get on Youtube, so there’s obviously some confirmation bias (or something) going on.
So what’s your take? An informed and tech-savvy populace doing their best to hold law enforcement accountable (especially if you take the view, debatable in another thread, that the courts aren’t exactly into holding law enforcement accountable)? Nosy busybodies trying to gum up the machinations of law enforcement? Somewhere in between?
Routine Traffic Stop in Ohio is filmed. Cop tries to …maybe intimidate ins’t the right word, but you see where I’m going. Nothing happens and he leaves the guys alone: Cop Blocking OH State Trooper - YouTube
Local Police Get Rather Upset by People Filming FEMA: - YouTube
God, what a dick! “I just wanna make sure everyone’s held accountable.” On the Las Vegas Strip in broad daylight? Ditto on the second example - cops in both instances behaving pretty rationally in the face of extreme assholishness.
I’m not gonna watch 20 minutes of that third video, but what I saw in the middle of it was that the guy was arrested after exiting a voluntary Terry stop. Maybe the cop was wrong here.
Anyway, I don’t see why this shouldn’t be allowed, but what exactly is this Cop Stop guy trying to achieve filming random cops going about their daily business?
I am a police trainer and I tell the officers to assume that they are being filmed all the time, especially when taking enforcement action. What’s the big deal? Act professionally at all times and you have less to worry about. That doesn’t mean NOTHING to worry about because a single (or even multiple) video often fails to give an accurate depiction of what was going on. Look how many angles the NFL uses. And that’s with the best equipment money can buy. OP is dead-on when talks about cops doing “right” not making it into Youtube. Boring. I say “record away” and if you get bad cops doing bad things, good. May I have your name, address and phone number in case we need your video for evidence? I didn’t think so.
Search YouTube for the phrase “Open Carry.” You’ll find quite a few videos in which officers try mightily to get people that were openly carrying firearms – legally – to identify themselves, which, in general, is not a legal requirement. (Of course, each state’s laws differ, but as a relatively safe claim, you cannot be required to identify yourself without at least reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is involved). When the gun carriers play the game knowing all the rules, it’s interesting to see how things work out.
I’m generally not a fan of this kind of stuff; I strongly support open carry but don’t like the idea of tying up a police officer for twenty minutes to play, “Am I free to go?” if the only thing he’s asking is for my ID, which is not an incriminating fact.
You’d think it would only take two minutes for the officer’s memory to be jogged to the fact that he does not, in fact, have the authority to require ID to be produced, send the citizen on his merry way, and free up eighteen minutes of quality donut-munching time.
I can understand why police might be against being filmed even if they were doing nothing wrong. Its easy to take things out of context, publicize minor mistakes, or otherwise edit it to make the police look bad. They are human and not everything they do in a given day will show them in a good light.
That said, there are cases where the police seriously overstep their bounds, and those cases should be publicized. On balance I think we are better off allowing them to be filmed, and the police would appear better off if they didn’t object.