Photographing The Police
In the era of smartphones and cheap digital cameras, most Americans now carry some sort of recording device. Though the right has been upheld repeatedly, cases continue to crop up across the country in which citizens are prevented from capturing images of arrests and other law enforcement actions. We explore an issue that has divided activists and law enforcement, and find out why Washington's Metropolitan Police Department issued an order upholding a citizen's right to photograph officers.
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Metropolitan Police Department General Order
The policy recognizes that members of the public have a First Amendment right to video record, photograph and audio record members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) while MPD officers are conducting official business or acting in an official capacity in any public space, unless such recordings interfere with police activity. Read the full order:
Video Published In Baltimore Brew
Scott Cover was harassed by the Baltimore City Police Department for filming an arrest in February 2012.
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I think every police officer should ask him or herself a fundamental question: What's the point of protecting and defending the liberties and freedom of citizens if you are simply going to hinder or deny the exercising of those liberties and freedom? What training do police receive so that they are sensitive to the issues of constitutional rights?
Thank you for covering the issue! USPP continue to arrest citizen journalists on the National Mall:
DC police recognizes citizen-journalists -- RT America
I use an Eye-Fi memory card meaning my pictures and video are automatically backed up to the cloud real time over wi-fi and 3G/4G.
I wonder how this would be handled as far as evidence being sequestered. How would that be handled?
I wonder as well, as technology gets more like this where the cloud and automatic dissemination to social networks is involved... how would that be handled? The belief that content will always only be stored with the device capturing the content; is short sighted and antiquated.