Some departments have special circumstances when officers are not supposed to record. This chart pulls out policies for witnesses & victims, areas with heightened expectation of privacy, First Amendment activity, and use of facial recognition technology.
Published: August 3, 2016Last Updated: July 19, 2019
“Limits on Recording Witnesses and Victims,” “Limits on Recording Private Situations,” and “Limits on Recording 1st Amendment Activity”: Some policies include restrictions on recording in circumstances with greater potential for abuse. It is valuable for police to have recordings of witness and victim statements, but recording also might make people reluctant to talk. A few policies restrict recording of First Amendment activity, such as protests and religious meetings, to avoid the possibility of targeting people based on this activity or creating a chilling effect. Other policies, however, insist on recording it, often based on a history of police abuses at protests. Most have some mention of heightened privacy expectations in places such as restrooms and locker rooms, and some provide special rules for recording inside a private home.
“Limits on Facial Recognition Technology”: Facial recognition technology has the potential to fundamentally change the nature of how body-worn camera video can be used. Technology that is either currently available or under development would allow departments to scan their databases of video footage for a particular suspect, to keep a database of the locations and movements of everyone they record, or to analyze video in real-time so an officer can identify suspects or passers-by based on pictures in police records or online. This functionality could to help find suspects faster and augment police officers’ ability to identify and remember people they encounter. Privacy advocates worry that combining BWCs with facial recognition could create an unprecedented level of intrusion into private moments and everyday activities, effectively eliminating anonymity in public. Furthermore, because individuals may not always be correctly identified, people who simply look like the intended target run the risk of being tracked or arrested. Due to these concerns, departments may wish to set limits on the application of facial recognition technology to the BWC recordings. So far, Baltimore’s is the only policy on our list to address this issue.
Officers are not required to initiate or cease recording an event solely at the request of a citizen. Officers are not required to inform citizens they are being recorded since the contact between an office and an individual does not constitute an environment where there is a “reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Officers may use BWC inside a private home “as long as they have a legal right to be there (e.g., call for service, valid search warrant, consent of owner)”. Officers shall not record in any place where there is a “reasonable expectation of privacy”, such as a restroom, locker room, detention facility, or hospital facility, except during an active incident. BWC footage containing sensitive or private situations (e.g. interview of a victim of sexual assault; individual who is partially or completely unclothed) will be redacted.
“If an Officer is lawfully present (e.g. arrest warrant, search warrant, criminal investigation, exception to the warrant requirement) at a location where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g. residence, restroom, dressing room, locker room, hospital, or mental health facility), there is no requirement that the Officer inform the person that video is being taken. Additionally, there is no requirement that the Officer discontinue use of the BWC upon an individual’s request.” However, if an officer is invited into a location where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the Officer has no lawful right to occupy that space, the officer must inform the person that they are being recorded and the person can request deactivation of the BWC.
Officers may record protests, but they shall not record First Amendment assemblies for the purpose of "identifying and recording the presence of individual participants who are not engaged in unlawful conduct.” BWCs will not be used to record particular individuals based on race, color, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation etc.