6-12-07 Video Idiocy

In Pennsylvania and other states, laws are now on the books that make it a felony to make audio recordings of police in public (or anyone else, for that matter), doing public functions such as traffic stops. These laws have been quietly passed as "anti-wiretapping" laws, expressly to prevent anyone in public being recorded (audio, not video) without their consent or a court order. The one exception, of course, is the ubiquitous "dashboard cameras" that police departments around the country send in to TV shows such as "Cops" and so forth. It's not only legal for the police to record anyone without their consent, they even get to have it shown on TV.

But if a citizen should want to videotape (with audio) the police in public, doing public functions such as a traffic stop, it's a felony. Here's the latest story from Pennsylvania, where a passenger in a car that was stopped by police started videotaping them after they (apparently) swore at the driver.

It's clear that these laws have been passed and are being used to prevent anyone from getting recordings of various police activities, especially anything that would endanger undercover operations or otherwise jeopardize police in the conduct of their duties. But using it to confiscate the evidence of possible police wrongdoing in a traffic stop is definitely not being received too well in this quarter. I find it reprehensible.