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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
"illegal surveillance" of police could get you in the slammer!
Steve Russell, Photographer
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Toronto | ON | Canada | Posted: 8:43 PM on 01.13.10 |
->> Wow, the police are getting creative with laws out there!
Police in Massachusetts are using wire tap laws to stop photographers and videographers from taking images of them. Saying that they need to consent to the "surveillance" first.
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/mass-recording-cop-jail/ |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 10:56 PM on 01.13.10 |
->> In the cases where the person was openly 'taping' the police interaction the cases have been tossed out. In the case where the SJC upheld the conviction, the basis for upholding the conviction was that the recoding device was concealed from the officer. The cop was never aware that he was being recorded and thus could not consent or end the encounter.
Further in the latter case the individual who recorded the encounter with the PD had several encounters with the local police and rigged his car to secretly record the officer. This was and is a violation of the Massachusetts 2 party consent law. In the cases that were tossed out it was held that by virtue of the fact that the recording device was in the open and not concealed and because the encounters were out in the open no one had any expectation of privacy.
One caveat is that this only applies to recordings that include audio. If the camera you are using to record the police activity has had the audio disabled the law does not apply.
Of course at some point a DA will decide to move forward with a prosecution and at that time we will finally get case law to give guidance.
It's interesting that I had a conversation about this same SJC case and one of the arrests with a PD captain during a break at a pop warner game. The officer is a very good friend and we debated back and forth at the intent of the law and its application. At the time I was capturing sound with my new Zoom H4n and showed him how sensitive the device was. That then got us into the recording of people in public 'secretly'.
Look at the bright side, if arrested for making such a recording, the officer will HAVE TO preserve the recording as evidence of said crime. SOOoooooo if he WAS doing something that he shouldn't have been doing and arrests you for recording it, it becomes catch 22. To make the arrest stick he'll need the (not so) illegal recording as evidence but that will mean putting his actions on display for the brass AND if the case goes to trial the recording becomes public record as evidence...... Doh!
Seems bad cops just can't catch a break. |
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