The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives us the freedom to record law enforcement in public domains. However, police around the country still harass and arrest individuals who do so. Individuals living in a state like Illinois, will be charged with a felony for recording someone without their permission.

In each state, except for Massachusetts and Illinois, the laws include a provision that the parties being recorded must have a reasonable expectation of privacy for it to be a crime to record them. Since police do not have an expectation of privacy while they are doing their work on the public street, video or audio recording of a police officers would not be banned.

The Illinois legislature took out “the reasonable expectation of privacy” exception specifically to make it illegal to videotape police officers. Illinois, being one of the most strict states when it comes to law enforcement recording, has had several court proceedings related to this.

Places like Illinois and Massachusetts have outraged certain unions and civil rights groups. IN 2012, the 7^th Circuit of Appeals Court (The appeals court that covers Illinois) found a specific First Amendment right that allows the recording of police officers. They stated that “audio and audiovisual recording are communication technologies, and as such, they enable speech.” This held that banning the allowance to record law enforcement, would be the same as banning our rights to freedom of speech. This will violate our First Amendment rights, and therefore, can not  be allowed.

The 7^th Circuit of Appeals is not the first appellate court to deny the continuance of these anti-recording laws. In 2011, the 1^st Circuit (covering Massachusetts) stated that the police that arrested him for recording cops could be sued by him because they violated his rights. The Court states: “Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting ‘the free discussion of governmental affairs.’”

It is now technically legal to record on-duty police officers in every state in the country. Will this stop police from arresting people for the same thing? Probably not. Police may use the statement that they arrested someone for “obstruction of justice” or “disturbing the peace” instead of admitting that they arrested them for videotaping. Fortunately, charges against anyone arrested will likely be dropped and the courts will likely not support the arrests.

If you are going to do it, make sure that you are not interfering with their investigation or work in any kind of way.