OFF THE WIRE
Featuring Neill Franklin, Executive Director, Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition; Joseph I. Cassilly, State's
Attorney, Harford County, Maryland; and David Rittgers , Legal
Policy Analyst, Cato Institute; moderated by Tim Lynch,
Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute.
The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20001
VIDEO, http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cpfa-09-22-10.mp3
Should it be illegal to record the police? Several high-profile cases of
police brutality have been exposed by citizens who recorded police actions with
cell phones. Yet some state wiretapping laws, written before the age of
ubiquitous recording devices, prohibit recording these events and then further
criminalize the publication of the recordings on the Internet. Does the First
Amendment protect citizen journalism, or do police agents have a right to
privacy while performing public duties? Please join us as we discuss this timely
and provocative topic.
Additional Resources:
"7 Rules for Recording Police," by Steve
Silverman, Reason.com