Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Civilians Can Record Police Encounters, But When Is It Interference? / Madeline Boreham / 4th period



A police officer was arrested in South Carolina this week, due to his violent act being caught on a witness's cell phone. This new form of evidence has also come with some backlash. One of the main issues with filming is the actual taping. It was ruled that the video may count as evidence as long as the person filming was not interfering with the police officers job. The only thing is they didn't specify what "interfering" means to them.This has been the biggest point against using video as evidence. It is predicted that this will go to the supreme court within the next few years.

We live in a world where everything is recorded. The majority of the public all have cells phones that can record videos. Now it is very easy to film people without them knowing, and as long as they are not involved with the police officer, it should be ok, because it can be used as evidence. Now some videos will be inaccurate and it will be interesting how the court will start to rule on how the camera man's involvement by filming. This will also cause police officers to be on their watch while they are in action. This may even lead to better action from police, because they know they can be filmed. I think this will open up a whole new element in the criminal justice system. Obviously this will not be the only source in court, but it will definitely have a prominent role in future cases.



This article was written by Hansi Lo Wang:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/04/09/398561610/civilians-can-record-police-encounters-but-when-is-it-interference
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3 comments:

  1. Harrison EpsteinApril 14, 2015 at 8:49 AM

    This is strange to begin with, also that is a major violation of privacy no matter who it is, and with our dwindling privacy measures we can use any privacy we can get

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  2. BookerTStudentApril 14, 2015 at 10:48 PM

    This is what comes with inventions. Things such as privacy are not taken into account.
    -Rachel Webb 3rd Pd

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 14, 2015 at 11:53 PM

    It makes sense that in a world were we have this technology right at our fingertips we should be able to use it in cases such as this. I agree with you though, the ambiguity of the clause will no doubt lead to trouble in the future.

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