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March 20th, 2016 
Awake Goy Other courts see it differently
The decision in Fields, however, is somewhat of an outlier. A 2015 nationwide study indicates that more courts – but certainly not all, as Fields indicates – are recognizing a limited First Amendment right to record police doing their jobs in public venues, regardless of the intent of the person recording. For example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which includes the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, concluded in 2014 in Gericke v. Begin that people have a First Amendment right to record officers conducting traffic stops, subject to “reasonable restrictions.” The problem, of course, is determining what constitutes a reasonable restriction. Reasonableness is a slippery concept. The First Circuit suggested that safety concerns might justify restricting the right to record. The court also was clear that a right to record is not a right to interfere. In a key passage, it explained:
The circumstances of some traffic stops, particularly when the detained individual is armed, might justify a safety measure – for example, a command that bystanders disperse – that would incidentally impact an individual’s exercise of the First Amendment right to film… . However, a police order that is specifically directed at the First Amendment right to film police performing their duties in public may be constitutionally imposed only if the officer can reasonably conclude that the filming itself is interfering, or is about to interfere, with his duties.
The First Circuit is not alone in recognizing such a qualified or limited First Amendment right to record images of police in public. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which sweeps up Florida, Georgia and Alabama, also found that:
the First Amendment protects the right to gather information about what public officials do on public property, and specifically, a right to record matters of public interest.
Like the First Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit also considers this right to be “subject to reasonable time, manner and place restrictions.” Additionally, the Ninth Circuit – the nation’s largest, encompassing nine western states – recognized in Fordyce v. City of Seattle a “First Amendment right to film matters of public interest,” including police. A federal district court in New York City in 2015 acknowledged a right to film police subject to reasonable restrictions, yet the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes New York, Connecticut and Vermont, has not endorsed this right. Viewed collectively, this growing spate of authority confirms that Judge Kearney’s decision in Fields v. City of Philadelphia is an outlier and, in my view, incorrect. Police officers are government officials and public employees. They work for the very people who want to record their actions. And when citizens record police in public places – locations where cops have no reasonable expectation of privacy, like streets and parks – those citizens are acting as watchdogs on possible government abuses of power. Feidin Santana’s video of officer Slager shooting Walter Scott in the back is all the proof needed of the importance of the watchdog role. A simple intent to monitor and observe, not to challenge or criticize, is all that should matter in determining if First Amendment rights are at stake. Ultimately, the Supreme Court must hear a right-to-record case to make it clear that in every jurisdiction there is a First Amendment right to film police performing duties in public. In doing so, it also should articulate the precise factors that make a restriction on this right reasonable. The ACLU of Pennsylvania has vowed to appeal Fields before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The case thus has a long way to go before it might ever reach the nation’s high court, which hears only about 70 cases a year, but it could well provide an ideal scenario to resolve the issue.
Clay Calvert, The Conversation – Clay Calvert is Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication, University of Florida.
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/03/20/does-the-first-amendment-protect-people-who-film-the-police/
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