Taping A Traffic Stop (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

From today's Washington Post.
=====================================================

In early March, Anthony Graber, a 25-year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard, was humming a tune while riding his two-year-old Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95, not far from his home north of Baltimore. On top of his helmet was a camera he often used to record his journeys. The camera was rolling when an unmarked gray sedan cut him off as he stopped behind several other cars along Exit 80.

From the driver's side emerged a man in a gray pullover and jeans. The man, who was wielding a gun, repeatedly yelled at Graber, ordering him to get off his bike. Only then did Maryland State Trooper Joseph D. Uhler identify himself as "state police" and holster his weapon. Graber, who'd been observed popping a wheelie while speeding, was cited for doing 80 in a 65 mph zone. Graber accepted his ticket, which he says he deserved.

A week later, on March 10, Graber posted his video of the encounter on YouTube. What followed wasn't a furor over the police officer's behavior but over Graber's use of a camera to capture the entire episode................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061505556.html?sub=AR


link to video


http://blog.washingtonpost.com/stor..._graber_25_is_facing.html?sid=ST2010061505592

 

[Bleu Raeder]

et tu Brute'?

 

[cdogg]

He's no Jimmy Justice.

 

[kt saint]

Wow. I do not understand this. How can you argue that cops can record citizens but citizens can not record cops. The governments are putting cameras all over the place. Hey, I'm all for the cops and would not want their jobs because of the line they have to walk. Having said that, people have rights also.

 

[FullMonte]

My question is....Do the Maryland state police cars have dashboard cameras? If so, then the case has no merit. If the marked car behind him has a dashboard camera, then there is no expectation of privacy on the part of the officer.

 

[kt saint]

My question is....Do the Maryland state police cars have dashboard cameras? If so, then the case has no merit. If the marked car behind him has a dashboard camera, then there is no expectation of privacy on the part of the officer.

From the article

Complicating the issue: Maryland state troopers record traffic stops themselves, using dashboard cameras that were installed in all patrol cars as a result of a 2003 settlement with the state ACLU over racial profiling.

But Cassilly says the use of dash cameras does not negate officers' entitlement to privacy on the job. Police who use dash cameras must alert drivers that they are being taped, he said.

 

[TheDeuce53]

Pretty ridiculous.

 

[mister pc]

thats why everybody rioted with the Rodney King thing. they werent mad about the beating, they were upset that somebody violated the cops privacy by filming the encounter.


in all seriousness, i dont understand how there is any merit to an argument that citizens cant film police stops. filming is what makes the cops act right. in fact i think more people should follow cops around with cameras, it would probably take care of a lot of the problems regarding abuse of power.

 

[Danchrism]

thats why everybody rioted with the Rodney King thing. they werent mad about the beating, they were upset that somebody violated the cops privacy by filming the encounter.


in all seriousness, i dont understand how there is any merit to an argument that citizens cant film police stops. filming is what makes the cops act right. in fact i think more people should follow cops around with cameras, it would probably take care of a lot of the problems regarding abuse of power.

No, we'd just have a lot of broken cameras

 

[FLIPPY]

If that dude keeps passing people via the right lane....he wont have to worry about getting pulled over one day.

 

[feoinfunroe]

On April 8, Graber was awakened by six officers raiding his parents' home in Abingdon, Md., where he lived with his wife and two young children. He learned later that prosecutors had obtained a grand jury indictment alleging he had violated state wiretap laws by recording the trooper without his consent.

...

During a 90-minute search of Graber's parents' home, police confiscated four computers, the camera, external hard drives and thumb drives. The police didn't take Graber to jail that day because he had just had gall bladder surgery.

A week later, he turned himself in...

...

It was Graber's first arrest. He spent 26 hours in jail. Graber has since stopped talking publicly about the case on the advice of his attorneys. On June 1, he was arraigned in Harford County Circuit Court in Bel Air. He faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

This is the part that should really be ******* people off.

I guess that the police in this country have become so used to using Gestapo tactics that a mere "summons" isn't good enough anymore....or more likely, since he had "dared" to show a cop in a "less-than-professional" moment, the rest of the "thin blue line" was going to make him pay.

 

[dtc]

Wow. I do not understand this. How can you argue that cops can record citizens but citizens can not record cops. The governments are putting cameras all over the place. Hey, I'm all for the cops and would not want their jobs because of the line they have to walk. Having said that, people have rights also.

Exactly, but to expound, how does a public employee on official business and in a public space have a right to privacy while conducting official business?

There are sunshine laws that prevent exactly this sort of thing in legislative bodies. How can this argument be made with a straight face?

 

[rob021275]

Exactly, but to expound, how does a public employee on official business and in a public space have a right to privacy while conducting official business?

There are sunshine laws that prevent exactly this sort of thing in legislative bodies. How can this argument be made with a straight face?

Exactly. And from watching the video, I think the police are grasping at straws because this video makes them look bad. Since when do cops in plain clothes pull guns on non-violent criminals without first identifying themselves? How would the motorcycle rider know he wasn't getting bike-jacked?

I'll almost always side with the police because I know it's a tough job and some people have no respect for the badge or anybody who wears it. But they do sometimes make mistakes and some of them are less-than-ethical.

And deeper than that: Why shouldn't the public have the right to tape a traffic stop if the police can? What if the two tapes give two different accounts or reveal something the police don't know or want the public to know? It's like denying you a defense.

To me, this ties into why red light cameras are wrong. Little or no chance to mount a defense...

If I were a judge, this wouldn't get past the opening arguments. Taping an agreed-upon encounter without consent and a detainment are not even remotely the same thing.

By the way: That dude was flying.

 

[SeminoleMarine]

The cop in the unmarked car never proved he was a cop. All he said was State Police. Never showed a badge or any other proof. That could have been anyone just saying "get off the bike, state police." I would say the "cop" is lucky he didn't get shot and/or killed. For all the guy on the bike knew, he was getting jacked. I don't know how I would have reacted (probably would have some brown stains in my underwear), but I know a couple of bikers that would have taken that cop down. I think the biker deserved the ticket he got, but that cop has to be very thankful he is still alive. This video could have shown a very different (and tragic) outcome.

 

[xpuma20x]

so, if a policeman has to state that he's recording the stop...and they're mad because the biker didn't tell the cop that he was recording it...does that mean either person could deny the others use of a video camera? The cop could say no don't record me...and you could tell the cop the same thing?