Courts have widely recognized a right to record government officials, including police, performing their duties in public, as protected by the First Amendment.

Basis. The right to gather information about public officials is a precondition of informed discussion, and it belongs to any member of the public rather than only to the institutional press.

Limits. The right is subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. Recording may be restricted where it genuinely interferes with an officer’s duties, jeopardizes safety, or occurs in a non-public space.

What is not permitted. Ordering a person to stop recording without a legitimate basis; seizing or searching a device without a warrant; deleting recordings, which raises separate due process and evidence-destruction questions; and arresting on a pretextual charge in response to recording.

Wiretap statutes. All-party consent statutes have been held inapplicable, or unconstitutional as applied, to open recording of officials performing public duties in public. Surreptitious recording is treated differently in some states.

Buffer zone statutes requiring distance from officers have met mixed results, with courts examining whether the distance is tailored.

Municipal practice. Written policy, training, and a rule that any order to stop recording must rest on a stated, articulable interference.