I agree with this. A lot of people go around, recording cops and purposely irritating them. It's hard to work under pressure especially when people keep on pushing and pushing you. There are already video recorders and cameras in the cars of many cops so if people have complaints they can always get a judge to allow access to the videos in order to make a claim. People who record cops usually do it because they are pretentious douche bags... just saying.
You may have a point. If I was going to record a cop, I'd probably doing it on my (nonexistent) Smart Phone while pretending to text somebody, but so many people try to attract attention by making it OBVIOUS that they're filming the cop and/or interfering with the cop's duties. If you're going to record a cop, don't be an a-hole about it. We've seen that Grand Juries are often reluctant to indict cops for using deadly force and you can always post it on Youtube and/or send it to your local news station later IF you walk away from the situation with your Smart Phone still in your hand.
But seriously, I hope somebody challenges this law on court. One of these days, somebody who just happened to capture a cop on video while filming themselves going about their business and then posted the whole thing on Youtube could be prosecuted using this law.
I wonder if there are any cops who are pretentious douche bags? Could that number be zero? Is there a magic potion they get after getting through the academy that makes these people perfect?
All this law does is guarantee that people recording are going to have to keep the recording secret, which is probably bad for the police. Knowing that they are being recorded may encourage best behavior, whilst not knowing (until it appears posted anonymously somewhere) may not be as good for them. It is a bad law.
The law makes it look like they have something to hide. The good cops may not be so worried about this.
I can see some security issues, with facial recognition and zero privacy. There are bad guys that might want to use this information for evil purposes.
My issue is more that it is a one-sided law... why a law that only protects police? Why not make the same law protect everyone if there is really some privacy concern?
The folks that want this for evil purposes will still be able to get their recordings, it will just cost more now that it is contraband.
