Hide From The Secret Police

Does anybody remember Rodney King? If you forgot, click the link to see Rodney King getting brutally beaten after a high-speed chase, eventually leading to the 1992 race riots in LA. What most people don't know is that thirteen seconds of footage, edited out and not aired on television, showed Rodney King getting up and charging at a police officer. Perhaps that video, if aired, could have prevented the deaths of fifty-three people.

My point is this -- information is power, and video is the most powerful form of information. It influences in a way that the written word cannot. Seeing is believing, and controlling what people see is a sure why to control them. Which leads me to my big question of the day -- do the police control people, or do people control the police?

Brian Kelly, an eighteen year old in Carlisle, PA, was riding in the passenger seat of a friend's pickup when the truck was pulled over by police for speeding. When the officer began yelling at his friend, Brian started recording the incident on his camcorder. He was arrested, and is currently facing up to seven years for violating Pennsylvania's wiretapping statute. (more info)

Wiretapping? Pennsylvania has a law prohibiting the recording of any conversations of any persons without their knowledge. The video wasn't the problem, but recording the police officer speaking was against the law. Ironically, the law has an explicit exception to allow police officers to record traffic stops themselves.

So let's review. The police are allowed to film you, but you cannot film them. The police are the only ones who can have footage of an incident. Maybe Pennsylvania learned from Rodney King. If you control the video, you can control what to release. Right now, the police can show their side, but nobody can (legally) record video to show the other side of the story.

Any regular reader of the Rodent is going to agree with me here: A police officer is a public servant. Everything he does in the line of duty is, by definition, public information. Yes, there are undercover policemen who need to have information, including their identity, concealed temporarily. However, at the end of the day, all police must be accountable for their actions.

I've personally been the subject of illegal and unwarranted searches by overzealous police. The attitude is simple -- if you're innocent, you've got nothing to worry about. Let's turn that around. If you're acting properly, you have nothing to fear from being filmed.

Pennsylvanians -- PLEASE contact your state legislator and let them know this law must be changed to allow the recording of all state employees in the line of duty.

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