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The police chief in Wilmington, North Carolina, has publicly lambasted one of his officers. The officer recently pulled over a local attorney moonlighting as an Uber driver and told the driver that he could not film the traffic stop.
"Taking photographs and videos of people that are in plain sight, including the police, is your legal right," Chief Ralph Evangelous said in a Wednesday statement published on the department's Facebook page. "As a matter of fact, we invite citizens to do so when they believe it is necessary. We believe that public videos help to protect the police as well as our citizens and provide critical information during police and citizen interaction."
The statement concluded: "A copy of this statement will be disseminated to every officer within the Wilmington Police Department."
During the February 26 traffic stop, Jesse Bright began filming Sgt. Kenneth Becker when he and other law enforcement officers approached his car. Sgt. Becker, who appeared to be wearing a VieVu body-worn camera, told Bright that a "new law" forbids citizens from filming encounters with police.
"Turn it off or I'll take you to jail," Becker said.
"For recording you?" Bright retorted. "What is the law?"
The officers were unable to cite him the "new law," as it does not exist.
Source: ArsTechnica
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:08PM (3 children)
I'm not sure why this is even surprising. Cops lie to suspects all the time. They have no legal obligation to tell the truth. (While we're at it, they have no legal obligation to protect you if you're in danger. They have no legal obligation to respond to any emergency. Even if they demonstrate gross negligence in responding to a call which puts people in grave danger, they are generally still covered by their "qualified immunity.")
If you are in a compromising situation and ask someone if they are a cop, they can lie and say no. If you tell something to a cop and say it's "just between you and me" and the cop agrees, it can still be used in court against you.
Basically, unless a cop is under oath or in certain other very specific circumstances, they have absolutely no duty to tell the truth -- and in fact are trained to lie through their teeth.
So, while this story is disturbing, it's also basically par for the course in a typical police day. They may more typically lie to suspects under interrogation or something, but I don't find it at all surprising that they'd lie to a random person during a traffic stop to get their way.
(Score: 1) by i286NiNJA on Tuesday March 14 2017, @08:59PM
They can't give legal advice but they often do. But I could be wrong, as you know I am not a lawyer.
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Tuesday March 14 2017, @09:47PM
Here, cops have much less "qualified immunity" than in US and a lot of cases when they have to tell the truth or at least have a damn good reason not to. They lie anyways. They also have a lot of cases when they DO have a legal obligation to protect you when you are in danger. They sometimes do. That's why modern technology is fun. For now.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday March 15 2017, @03:49PM
Unfortunately, they also have a habit of lying even when they do have a duty to tell the truth, such as on warrant requests or when testifying in court.