FILMING A POLICE ACTION: Your Rights Explained here

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/everything-you-need-know-about-your-rights-when-filming-police?akid=13012.294211.TpKmA9&rd=1&src=newsletter1034908&t=7

Everything You Need to Know About Your Rights When Filming Police

Video is proving decisive in holding police accountable for abuses nationwide.

 Over the past week, video of police killings of unarmed African Americans in South Carolina and Oklahoma has led to charges against the officers who fired the fatal shots. Meanwhile, 10 sheriff’s deputies have been suspended in California after a news helicopter filmed them kicking and punching a suspected horse thief as he lay face down in the desert after a chase.
As video proves decisive in holding police accountable for abuses nationwide, we are joined by Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. He authored Know Your Rights for the ACLU, and its companion article, "You Have Every Right to Photograph That Cop."

JAY STANLEY: Yeah, the courts have been crystal clear on this matter: You have a right, under the First Amendment of the Constitution, to take photographs or video of anything in public when you’re in public. And there have been attempts in some states to pass laws curbing this right. They have been struck down by the courts, and the Supreme Court has refused to review those rulings striking down those kinds of laws. So there’s no ambiguity about the law.
The only problem is, is that a lot of police officers continue to think that they can go up to you and say, you know, "You need to turn that camera off, ma’am." That is not a lawful order. It’s not a constitutional order. But it’s one that continues to happen all too often. And they certainly don’t have the right to look at your camera or seize your phone without a warrant. And they never, ever, under any circumstances that we can imagine, have the right to destroy or erase your video or photographs.