Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
ACLU Sues Police for Seizing Phone After Man Records Police Misconduct
September 11, 2012
I have enormous respect for the work of good police officers who keep us safe and so often put themselves in harm's way to do so. But for many years, the misconduct of rogue officers was hard to prove – until smartphones began to record audio and video of that misconduct.
Wired reported Friday on a suit filed by the ACLU against the District of Columbia and two police officers for allegedly seizing the cellphone of a man who photographed misconduct by a police officer and then stealing his memory card.
On July 20th, Earl Staley, Jr. was on his way to the bus stop when he used his phone to record an officer hitting a man on a motorbike. Two officers allegedly punched the man on the ground as he bled and then began "chest bumping" bystanders who wouldn't leave the area.
One officer seized Staley's phone and told him that he was breaking the law by photographing another officer according to the complaint. He threatened to arrest Staley if he didn't leave the scene and said he was seizing the phone as evidence.
When the police returned the phone, its memory card was missing. It contained years of personal data, including family photos, financial account data, passwords and music files. Staley was quoted as saying, "That memory card had a lot of my life on it . . . I can never replace those photos of my daughter's first years. The police had no right to steal it. They're supposed to enforce the law, not break it."
Amen. Ironically, the incident occurred a day after the D.C. Police Department issued a General Order informing officers that the public has a First Amendment right to photograph or record police officers performing their duties in public. That opinion is shared by the U.S. Justice Department.
I understand how the Blue Code of Silence came to be but I am pleased that one aspect of our new technology is that police misconduct can be recorded – and it will always be the most damning evidence of that misconduct. The Blue Code of Silence can't hold up under the "sunshine" of recorded evidence.
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