MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — The bill filed by a Texas House Member proposing to prohibit private citizens from filming police officers at close range ignores reality and raises concerns about violating the First Amendment, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) told Sputnik on Friday.
The bill, which was introduced earlier in March by Texas Rep. Jason Villalba, attempts to limit public oversight of police activities by prohibiting filming or photographing law enforcement officers within 25 feet.
"Generally speaking, any attempt to restrict the ability of the public to film or photograph the police is concerning as that right is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution," NACOLE Director Brian Buchner told Sputnik.
However, the right does not give the public free reign to film police "wherever and whenever they want," Buchner added.
"The idea that placing a specific limit on the distance from which the public can lawfully record the police ignores the reality that sometimes police do work in crowded areas and situations like protests or expressions of other Constitutional protections… which can place the public in close contact with the police," Buchner continued.
The bill qualifies only radio, television, newspapers and magazines as news media. Therefore, internet news sites and private citizens would not be allowed to record their own interactions with law enforcement.
Ensuring the safety of police officers is of paramount importance, but it should not "unnecessarily restrict those freedoms that form the very fabric of this nation," according to the NACOLE director.
The issue of police oversight has been under the spotlight in the United States after multiple cases of killings of unarmed African American civilians by white police officers. Among the most notable recent cases are the killings of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold by white police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York City, and Michael Brown, a teenager who was fatally shot in Ferguson, Missouri.
