Recording cops is illegal

Old law that's been on the books long before cell phones. It's the same in many states where everyone has to know and agree to being recorded for it to be legal. In some states only one person needs to know that the recording is taking place and that makes it legal. My guess is unless those states have laws exempting the police from making a recording or your arrest or at least when you get pulled over, they are also guilty of recording you without your permission and the officers would be subject to arrest and imprisonment too. I would imagine that these states have exempted law enforcement from these laws...

The newspaper article said in part..

"Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said allowing the audio recording of police officers while performing their duty can affect how an officer does his job on the street."

Of course. What else would you think the head of the FOP would say?

If you can't record bad cops breaking the law, then how else are you going to hold them accountable when they do it.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

I think it is not in NY

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/nyregion/10quotas.html?_r=...

I wonder what the policy would be if you have those DVRs they sell for cars and record your whole trip, including a cop's screw-up.

I would think that if you got busted for recording the police, you were recording for a reason. If they pressed charges against you, just hand the recording over to a lawyer and let them take care of it.

Most recordings of law enforcement that "I've" seen were of "them" doing something wrong. It's on the news all of the time.

Cops above the laws can record anything without anyone permission.

Normal people recording cops will be prosecuted and send to prison.

What's about tele-reporter recording cops, do they have to ask for permission? I saw lot of clip cops gone wild on news everyday. Do they permission to recording that?

Just curious.

There is a movement afoot in CA to put an initiative on the ballot making it legal for any citizen to record or video any public official while they are acting in a official capacity.

When in public any person should expect to be recoded at any given time. Look at the women that was videoed falling into the fountain while texting. She did not know she was being videoed. She did not know the people doing it nor did they know her.

Myself I feel that any public official doing there duties properly should have no fear of the camera. It is when they start doing wrong that they do like the camera.

If someone really wants to record my not so politically correct life style have at it, but please don't come back later and say that I was not living up to your expectations.

for example-- Illinois is one of the states with the toughest laws against audiotaping a conversation between you and another party without their knowledge. The law states that you can face up to 15 years in prison for committing the offense.

More on that here:

http://www.dailytech.com/Chicago+Police+Tape+Us+Get+Sentence...

Kelowna RCMP Police Brutality Investigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbdareHU4Ik

This made headlines here in Canada recently.

In Washington State you can record anyone. Just cannot record the voice. That will get you into trouble.

love it how they can record all our emails, cell texts, telephone conversations. but if we record them we go to jail, while they invade our privacy each and everytime we use an electronic device.

You are allowed to record any discussion or conversation in which you are a participant without requiring the permission of anyone else.

So feel free to record your exchanges with the police.

You are also allowed to photograph and record anything that is out there in the public domain without seeking permission, unless you plan to use the images for commercial gain. Would suing the cops for battery constitute 'commercial gain'?

In Oregon I have been told it comes down to what is a reasonable expectation of privacy. You don't expect privacy in public so you can record. A phone you can record if you announce it. You can also record it if you don't announce it, but you can't use the recording against anyone.

Hey, does this mean that City street cameras cannot record our actions w/o our permission. How about video cameras in police cars. Chicago has them everywhere.

It's great that Chicago has this old law that you cannot record w/o the other parties permission but how about bad police officers going above the law.

As tax paying citizens we should be able to record any public official whether it's a police officer, politician, city worker or anyone that mis-spends our hard earned tax dollars.

In Oregon, any party to the phone conversation can record it without notifying any other parties, and can certainly use it against the others.

does that come as a great surprise to anyone here.? I would think it would be a no brainer to just about anyone I know...and what in all of heaven would prompt one to do such a thing?

That's just wrong. If citizens can be recorded in public, so should the public officials who are paid by citizen's tax dollars.

In fact, it should be mandatory to record cops, to make sure no abuses of power takes place.

No. This is well established law. The moment you step outside your home, you should have ZERO expectations of privacy because you have no legal right to privacy when you are in public. You may be photographed by anyone, anytime, anywhere, but not for any use. A photograph made to be sold in a book of photographs or even as single prints without permission is allowed, but a photograph made to be used for a commercial purpose, such as a print ad in a magazine, is not. For that the photographer must obtained a signed release from everyone that can be identified in the images to be able to sell them.

In short, the police, or anyone else for that matter can photograph you all they want when you are in public. If you want to commit a crime, be sure to do it behind closed doors.

"I'd rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

I remember in BLAW class there was an old case that went to the supreme court about someone who did not want to be photgraphed in public suing someone else. The case basically came down to, if you are in a public place, then anyone can take a photgraph of you. I believe that same court case would apply to video and audio.

Anyway, here is an interesting link.

http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5618/federal-court-rules-v...

IIRC, a high court case recently threw out a conviction from Baltimore where woman standing on her front lawn recorded police making an arrest and got arrested for doing so.

It also got overturned here in Chicago, and rightfully so. Police should have no expectation of privacy, and those that do everything by the book have nothing to fear anyway. Unless you're doing something you know is wrong, why should you care?
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/03/02/judge-rules-against-s...