Lets start with a trio of foundational assumptions that affect us all as citizens and citizen journalists. First, when people are situated in public venues, such as parks, streets or sidewalks, they have no reasonable expectation of privacy. What they do in those common locations thus is fair game for anyone else to witness and, in turn, to photograph and record. Second, police officers and law enforcement officials are public servants and government employees. They work for us -- the taxpayers -- and their actions are not only of public interest, but of public concern. Third, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of speech against government censorship. With those three suppositions in mind, it seems like a legal no-brainer that citizens have the right to film and record police officers performing their official duties in public places and to disseminate the resulting images to others as they see fit.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 19:52:38 +0000
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