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New Bill in Colorado Would Protect the Right to Record Police

posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 07 2015, @12:49PM   
from the 'give-me-your-Bill'-said-the-officer dept.

bookreader writes:

In the light of the heated discussions about a certain bill signed in Indiana, here is a more refreshing news about a proposed bill in Colorado. The state of Colorado is considering a bill that outlines punishments for police officers who interfere with photographers. House Bill 15-1290 is titled "Concerning Prohibiting A Peace Officer From Interfering With A Person Lawfully Recording A Peace Officer-Involved Incident".

The bill states that if a person is lawfully documenting a police officer and then has their imagery seized or destroyed without a warrant, they are entitled to $15,000 for actual damages plus attorney fees and costs. The bill also would be applied when a police officer intentionally interferes with a person's ability to capture images.

It seems the bill came up as a result of the number of news reports about police officers telling people "Give me your camera", or taking the data away.

The story is covered further in The Denver channel and PetaPixel.

• Business as usual... either way Business as usual... either way (Score: 3, Interesting) by choose another one on Tuesday April 07 2015, @03:53PM

  by choose another one (515) on Tuesday April 07 2015, @03:53PM (#167481)

  If it passes: "a person lawfully recording" will not apply, because the second an officer chooses to disengage from an incident to deal with a photographer, that photographer is interfereing with an investigation. The mistake is to assume they currently persecute lawful photographers, obviously they don't - any photographer they interfere with is by definition _un_lawful...

  If it doesn't pass, even better, the legislature has just confirmed to the cops that they have the right to interfere with _any_ photographer...

  Sounds like a win-win, for them.

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• Re:Business as usual... either way (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2015, @04:36PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2015, @04:36PM (#167494)

  Also;
  Cops break law. Citizen films it. Cops destroy evidence and pay $15k for the privilege. Cops goes free from the crime. Cheaper than most lawyers.

  Parent

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