Should videotaping cops really be a crime?

Should videotaping cops really be a crime?

by A Person | Published on August 4th, 2010, 2:36 pm | News

An unmarked civilian car cuts off a motorcycle and man in jeans and seat shirt jumps out , points a gun at a motorcyclist and tells him to get off the bike. He then claims to be 'State Police' but shows no ID.

(skip to the 3:00 mark)

Here's the wrinkle, because the biker had a helmet cam he was charged with 'unlawful wiretapping' by recording a 'private' conversation without the permission of the cop

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 66,00.html

This hasn't stopped cops using video from cop cars in courts (also obtained without the permission of both parties)

I'd like to think that the police should welcome cameras to show how they follow correct procedure. It certainly shouldn't be illegal, otherwise courts would have to rely on the cop's word as verbatim.

Wow... yeah that cop looks like a "deek"... there's a few of them out there....

Unrelated, but sort of related... there was a guy arrested like this in his home thrown in jail and faces felony drug distribution charges because the amount of prescription medicine that his doctor prescribed for him for pain relief was enough to cause all this.... by the way he's in a wheel chair...

My goodness...

Clearly this cop got pissed that he was speeding on a bike.... Write him a ticket for that but the camera thing seems childish.

Hold on: recording a conversation without permission is a crime? Where is that written? I know some people who ought to hear about that.

It's explained here: http://www.rcfp.org/taping/

Federal law allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states and territories have adopted wiretapping statutes based on the federal law, although most also have extended the law to cover in-person conversations. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia permit individuals to record conversations to which they are a party without informing the other parties that they are doing so. These laws are referred to as “one-party consent” statutes, and as long as you are a party to the conversation, it is legal for you to record it. (Nevada also has a one-party consent statute, but the state Supreme Court has interpreted it as an all-party rule.)

Twelve states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Because this was Maryland, the biker (a Maryland Air National Guard staff sergeant) could get up to 16 years in prison - although I doubt that will happen.

I know when I was working the call center circle that in some states there has to be an audible beep to identify to the caller they're being recorded. Also in CA, if a customer wished to record us... we'd have have to transfer to a supervisor.