How to record police with your smartphone
A guide built around the legal right to film officers in public, drawn from civil-liberties groups' guidance and the safety lessons drawn from Darnella Frazier's recording of George Floyd's arrest.
The right to record police performing their duties in public is protected under the First Amendment, according to civil-liberties guidance from groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. That right underpins a set of practical lessons that spread widely after 17-year-old Darnella Frazier's smartphone video of George Floyd's arrest became central evidence in Derek Chauvin's murder conviction.
The core legal protections, as described across FIRE, the EFF and FindLaw's civil-rights guidance, are consistent: bystanders can photograph or film plainly visible things in public, including police and other officials carrying out their duties, in federal buildings, transportation facilities and public streets alike.
What officers cannot do
According to that same civil-liberties guidance, officers cannot lawfully order a bystander to stop recording a public scene, cannot order someone to delete photos or video from their device, and cannot search a phone without a warrant based on probable cause — even if the person recording is under arrest. Officers can order someone to stop activity that genuinely interferes with legitimate law-enforcement work, a narrower category than simply recording from a distance.
Doing it safely
Safety guidance from the same sources centers on distance and visibility: maintain space so officers have room to do their job, avoid engaging with the officer or the person they are interacting with, and keep the phone visibly out in the open rather than concealed — a hidden phone risks being mistaken for a weapon and escalating the situation. Recommended tools include apps like the ACLU's Mobile Justice app, which can stream video live to a user's contacts and local ACLU chapter as it records, providing a backup if the device itself is seized.
What it signals
The Frazier video is the reference point for why this guidance matters at all: a single bystander's recording, made from a public sidewalk, became evidence a jury weighed in a murder trial. That is the practical argument civil-liberties groups make for why the legal right to record — and knowing how to exercise it safely — has consequences well beyond the moment of filming.
US In News compiled this archived account from guidance published by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It restores a story originally published on this site in 2021; figures are as reported at the time.