Frequently Asked Questions - videotape
Videotaping or photographing police in public places is usually legal, so long as you don’t interfere their ability to do their job. Nonetheless, police generally don't like being watched or documented and will often respond aggressively.
Citizens are frequently arrested for videotaping police, and the charges are later dropped. Regardless, video is uniquely effective in revealing guilt and exonerating the innocent -- for both police and citizens. See examples of this here, here, here, and here.
If you're videotaping or photographing police, make sure you don’t interfere. If you're arrested, “obstruction” is the most likely charge, and you’ll want to be able to defend against it.
If you acquire video or photographic evidence of police misconduct, create and secure copies of the evidence. Then forward copies to local police monitoring groups such as civilian review boards, and local ACLU, NLG, and NAACP chapters. You should also obtain legal representation for yourself in case the police department retaliates against you.
For an excellent defense of why it should never be illegal to videotape police, click here.
