LEARN HOW TO MAKE A CHANGE
Filming law enforcement
There is a 90% chance that you already own one of the most powerful tools available to hold law enforcement officers accountable!
Some of the most famous cases of police brutality and misconduct became public knowledge because a bystander had the presence of mind to pull out their phone and start documenting. There is a common saying in the auditor/copwatcher community: "Cops lie, cameras don't."
Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Terence Crutcher, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, Stephon Clark, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Patrick Lyoya
What do all of those names have in common? They all died after encounters with law enforcement.
Many of their cases only became national news as a result of video footage taken by members of the public that simply happened to be in the right place at the right time.
What to know before you start recording:
You have a First Amendment right to record or photograph anything in plain view, including government buildings or a police officer performing their duties in public. However, there are some things to keep in mind to stay on the right side of the law yourself.
- You must be in a place that you are legally allowed to be. You cannot trespass in order to document law enforcement officers!
- You are not legally allowed to interfere with, or stop a law enforcement officer from, performing their duties. Be smart about keeping a reasonable distance while you document!
- You are not breaking wiretapping laws by capturing audio along with your video recording as long as you are in public. There is NO reasonable expectation of privacy in public.
- Law enforcement officers cannot confiscate, demand to view, or delete any photos or video recordings that you have made without a warrant. If they try to tell you that they have the authority to do so, they are lying!
Getting Tougher Laws Passed:
One of the primary reasons (in our belief) that law enforcement officers continue to engage in corruption, brutality, and civil rights violations is that they rarely suffer any consequences for doing so. Even in the infrequent cases where an officer is sued under civil law, the municipality that employs that officer generally indemnifies that officer. In short, the city/county/state pays any settlement or award instead of it coming out of the pocket of the officer.
The only way to change this is through legislation.
The sad reality of our current situation is that law enforcement unions often have our municipalities by the short hairs. They negotiate contracts that not only allow, but seemingly encourage, bad behavior by officers. Many officers that have lost civil rights violations cases in court have retained their jobs and even been promoted after the event. This is absolutely unacceptable!
By contacting your elected officials, you can help put pressure on our government to pass legislation that would mandate officers that lose civil rights court cases to be fired and stripped of their law enforcement certification. Not only that, but such legislation could even require that such officers be charged with the crimes of which they are accused and pay any settlement or award themselves! There is no reason that we should continue to consider the firing of an officer that has unlawfully killed someone as a, "win."
look up your elected officialsAbolish Qualified Immunity:
What is Qualified Immunity?
Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine created by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 that prevents government workers, even those who act in bad faith, from being sued for violating Constitutional rights, unless these rights are "clearly established." By shielding those who violate Constitutional rights, qualified immunity impedes justice and contributes to the erosion of trust in government officials at all levels.
While we could wear our fingers to the bone typing in order to explain why qualified immunity is a cancer upon the legal landscape of America, the more simple and eloquent solution is to let you read what the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund has to say about it.
While four states (Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico, along with New York City) have created legislation eliminating qualified immunity in state constitutional lawsuits against law enforcement officers, there has been no such action taken by the federal government. With the current level of partisan dysfunction, it will likely be quite some time before anything does happen.
If you would like to be a part of the solution, we are happy to let you know that there is an organization solely dedicated to ensuring that qualified immunity is forever destroyed: Americans Against Qualified Immunity. They are a grassroots initiative of the Institute for Justice's Project on Immunity and Accountability, devoted to a simple idea: If we the people must follow the law, our government must follow the Constitution.