Is the recording of police legally protected?

Filming police is a constitutionally protected right, multiple courts have ruled. 

The first news release from the city of Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder said he had died of a “medical emergency.” It was a citizen filming at the scene who first exposed that former police officer Derek Chauvin had leaned on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. 

Multiple federal circuit courts have concluded that citizens have a First Amendment right to film the police performing their duties in public. The U.S. Supreme Court has not directly ruled on a case addressing the issue. 

Bottom line: Taking photographs and video in public spaces is protected speech. Therefore, filming police in public spaces is protected. But the way courts interpret this right historically has varied.

For example, a 2022 law in Arizona made it illegal to knowingly take video of police officers from an 8-foot-or-closer vantage point without an officer’s permission.