Boynton woman's suit fights to allow videotaping of police

Sun-Sentinel ^ | 08/01/2010 | Sun-Sentinel

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

When Tasha Ford was summoned by Boynton Beach police to pick up her son for allegedly sneaking into a movie theater she came with a video camera.

Her decision to protect her son by capturing the officers on tape backfired badly.

After repeatedly warning her to stop taping them, insisting it was illegal, Boynton Beach police slapped her in handcuffs and took her to jail. She was charged with resisting arrest without violence and intercepting oral communications, a third-degree felony.

While prosecutors ultimately decided not to file charges against Ford or her son in connection with the February 2009 confrontation the 34-year-old Boynton Beach mother of two doesn't want others to face a similar ordeal.

Now, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union Ford is hoping to give people throughout the state the right to whip out cameras when police stop them.

The lawsuit filed in July in U.S. District Court is one of several the civil rights group has filed throughout the country seeking to overturn laws it says violate residents' First Amendment rights. In Maryland, the group is representing a man who taped a traffic stop from a camera mounted on his motorcycle helmet. The tape that shows a gun-wielding plainclothes officer approaching the motorcyclist became a YouTube sensation.

Like the Maryland man, Ford prominently displayed her camera to Boynton Beach officers. She said she grabbed it when police called because she had a bad feeling about why they stopped her son, a good student who had never been in trouble. She said she was shocked when they hauled her off to jail.

"When can't I record you for my protection?" she said recently. "If they're not doing anything wrong, why should they care?"

[Reeses]

a 115-pound, 20-year-old girl wearing a cervical collar with nothing but a cell phone.

Not that cervix, the other cervix.

[dcwusmc]

Thanks. Just another blood pressure raiser!

[DWC]

Hope you don’t need one. Stating something like that tends to make you seem like you need therapy.

[TeachableMoment]

Yeah, I thot all them cameras were supposed to make us safer, and that only a criminal would recoil from the threat of surveillance. Get your stories straight!

I keep being reminded about how so many have died for, and are presently fighting for, my liberty, and I keep wondering, what liberties? Plz show me!

[buccaneer81]

Keep licking those boots.

[buccaneer81]

BTW, I expect an “historian” to be able to spell “Camaro.”

[buccaneer81]

Hope you don’t need one..

The last time one was at my house was to try and gather evidence of child abuse against my son, as alleged by my ex-wife. He was a prick. He was an agent of the state. May he suffer what I have suffered in "family court."

I go by the 20-60-20 rule. 20% of cops are good, decent human beings willing to risk all. 60% are employees of their LEO agency working for a paycheck. And the final 20% are scumbags.

[DWC]

Interesting but don’t take your problems to the website, and explain to me how you come up with a ratio of good cops to bad ones. Do you take surveys? Really strange. I know, you have a gun and don’t need protection.

[buccaneer81]

You really are a piece of work...Yes I am armed most of the time. So what? I see too many cops who are scumbags.

[TeachableMoment]

I really liked the part about ‘being familiar with all types of weapons, including cell phone guns’

LOL

[Dr.Zoidberg]

So what’s the difference between a cop’s dashcam recording video and audio of you and you recording video and audio of him with a handheld camera?

That's simple. They don't control whether the video tape has a malfunction if it's in YOUR possession.

[DWC]

You’re more than a piece of work. But since this is a website for people that are interested in straightening out this country, we better work together. If not the monsters will take over, and that’s trouble. BTW my friend is a detective of the gang murder squad in queens, if you want to see pieces of work, those gang members are it. I’ve joined him on a search warrant. I know.

[JSteff]

state law allows people to tape public officials conducting business in public.

That is the crux of the whole issue. An arrest IS a public issue. Certainly the record will most likely be open to public view. Why shouldn't video taping of ANY OFFICIAL on public business be allowed?

[JSteff]

.If the Officers aren't doing anything wrong they have noting to fear, right?

That of course us the reason so many are afraid. They know what they do is so often not legal or at least within the law.....

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I know, you have a gun and don’t need protection.
~~~
Add me to that list,,,

I don't have any use for them either,,,

All they do is make money for the city,,,

Most of the honest ones have quit here,,,

I know plenty of them,,,

Years back I lived in the bad part of town,,,dope/gangs,,,

I made a list of the people going to a drug house behind me,,,

I had a “hide” out back,,,

50+ of tag#’s,,,time,,,etc.,,,

Called over and over but they did nothing for months,,,

Finally the local SO sent their SWAT team in,,,

They had to hit it three times before they busted them,,,

Another time the thugs started dealing on my corner in my

yard!!!,,,

City cops would never come,,,

I fixed it,,,

Another time,,,The bloods had a chop-shop directly behind

my house,,,

Same damned thing,,,

Again I called,,,

Nothing done,,,

Again I fixed it,,,

Now I've got a pitbull puppy-mill/dope dealer next door,,,

Same shiite different city,,,

Six calls so far,,,

I guess I'll have to fix this too,,,

Then there's NOLA...

[Publius6961]

I agree with the majority. We should be able to video and audio record anything going on in or around our persons and our vehicles, specially if there is no attempt to conceal it.

The charge of "intercepting oral communication" is so lame any cop or bureaucrat voicing it should not be serving in any public safety capacity.
The lawmakers who wrote a law so loosely that it could be so grossly misapplied should bear some of the blame.
The crime is intercepting oral communication already in electronic form, and disclosing it to others.

If LEOs can use technology to aid their memory and the performance of their job, so should a free citizen not committing any crime have the same right.

Should go without saying.

[Publius6961]

Sorry I disagree, there is a very good reason for LE’s to fear cameras. Thats why they don’t want us to have them.

Well they don't get to decide that.
Or shouldn't.

[buccaneer81]

Don’t even try to assuage me. I’ve been the victim of the scum with badges. I can take care of myself with my CCW permit and weapon. These scumbags took my kid away from me. Agents of the state is what they are; no better than the Stasi in East Germany 25 years ago.

[J Edgar]

“Sorry I disagree, there is a very good reason for LE’s to fear cameras. Thats why they don’t want us to have them.”

Ok, I accept your premise, if and only if, you can describe what the GOOD reason might be!

[whence911]

Police are often accused of abuse and wrongdoing. Sometimes it's true. Most police work should not be conducted in secret like restraining suspects, handling demonstrations, giving tickets, etc. Many prisons have beend taped forced cell extractions and even riots for the last 20 years. If the police are professional and non-abusive then they have nothning to fear.

If citizens can present tapes showing police abuse, then it takes away the automatic belief in the cops testimony. In the long run, we'll have a better trained police force. In the prisons, the tapes have often shown the inmate to be at fault and it's "case closed" at disciplinary hearings. Perhaps the same will happen with police work.

The better questions is why shouldn't police work be taped?