Thanks to ubiquitous recording technology, we’re more able than ever to expose bad behavior by police or exonerate cops falsely accused of it. Law-enforcement officers across the country will have to adjust to the reality that any citizen with a smartphone can record them when they are on duty, because there is nothing they can legally do to stop it, as a federal appeals court confirmed last week.
The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, involved two incidents in which Philadelphia police officers forcibly interfered with people who were trying to record them. Such harassment, which often involves phone confiscation and trumped-up criminal charges, is sadly common, even though every federal appeals court to consider the issue has said it violates the First Amendment.