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

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.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Translation Error on Tuesday April 07 2015, @03:55PM

    by Translation Error (718) on Tuesday April 07 2015, @03:55PM (#167482)
    From the bill:

    A person who lawfully records an incident involving a peace officer, and has that recording destroyed by a peace officer, or a peace officer seizes the recording without receiving permission from the person to seize it or without first obtaining a warrant, has a private civil right of action against the peace officer's employing law enforcement agency. [edited for readability]

    So, it looks like the money would come from the agency the officer's working for, and while it's not the deterrent it would be if it were coming out of the officer's own pocket, you can be sure that someone will be coming down pretty hard on the person who made $15,000+ vanish from the department's budget.

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