![]() ![]() Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances. Officers have faced felony charges of evidence tampering as well as obstruction and theft for taking a photographer’s memory card. It is possible that courts may approve the temporary warrantless seizure of a camera in certain extreme “exigent” circumstances such as where necessary to save a life, or where police have a reasonable, good-faith belief that doing so is necessary to prevent the destruction of evidence of a crime while they seek a warrant. Although the court did not specifically rule on whether law enforcement may search other electronic devices such as a standalone camera, the ACLU believes that the constitution broadly prevents warrantless searches of your digital data. Police officers may not confiscate or demand to view your digital photographs or video without a warrant. The Supreme Court has ruled that police may not search your cell phone when they arrest you, unless they get a warrant. When you are on private property, the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs. If you disobey the property owner's rules, they can order you off their property (and have you arrested for trespassing if you do not comply). Such photography is a form of public oversight over the government and is important in a free society. When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Through litigation, public education, and other forms of advocacy, the ACLU has defended the rights of photographers and all camera-wielding individuals to document freely. ![]() No one should ever find an FBI agent on their doorstep just because they photographed public art. Relatedly, artistic expression should never be chilled out of fear of unwarranted police scrutiny. It is no accident that some of the most high-profile cases of police misconduct have involved video and audio records. It creates an independent record of what took place in a particular incident, one that is free from accusations of bias, lying, or faulty memory. The right of citizens to record the police is a critical check and balance. Other people have ended up in FBI databases for taking innocuous photographs of public places. Those who fail to comply have sometimes been harassed, detained, and arrested. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers have been known to ask people to stop taking photographs of public places. A week later, Musumeci was harassed and threatened with arrest after trying again to record Heicklen at the federal courthouse.Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right-and that includes transportation facilities, the outside of federal buildings, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. ![]() After being arrested, Musumeci was detained for about 20 minutes and issued a ticket for violating the photography regulation. ![]() During his arrest, Musumeci was grabbed by his arms and forced to the pavement as the video card from his camera was confiscated. The inspector then arrested Musumeci for violating a federal regulation governing photography. Musumeci stepped backward and recorded the arrest. As they were recording, Musumeci and Heickle were confronted by a federal inspector from the Department of Homeland Security, who arrested Heicklen. Musumeci, a 29-year-old resident of Edgewater, N.J., and member of the Manhattan Libertarian Party was recording an interview in front of the courthouse steps with Julian Heicklen, a libertarian activist who was advocating for jury nullification. On November 9, 2009, Libertarian activist Antonio Musumeci was arrested while using his hand-held video camera to record a protestor in a public plaza outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Manhattan. ![]()
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