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| Colorado State Capitol. Photo by L. Chang |
Colorado, U.S. state legislatures have introduced a
new bill that, if signed into law, will prevent law enforcement
officers from interfering with citizens who are photographing or
recording police activity. It is House Bill 15-1290, and it comes at a time when Texas has proposed its own bill on
the topic, but with a draconian slant: it penalizes citizens that film
or photograph police actions within 25 feet of the incident.
Colorado's new bill was introduced this month, and
if it goes through, it will enable citizens to partake in police
oversight by way of photography and video recordings. According to the
bill, a police officer cannot destroy a recording, interfere with a
recording, or seize it without consent or a warrant.
If an officer acts outside of the bounds of the
law, the affected person will receive $15,000, actual damages, and will
have his or her legal costs covered. The bill is said to largely be the
result of increasing incidents where police officers demand cameras from
people who are recording them, or who in some way destroy or delete the
data. Colorado Democratic Rep. Joe Salazar, the bill's co-sponsor, has
called such actions 'unacceptable conduct'.
A previous version of this story incorrectly
stated that the Texas bill limited photography to 15 feet away from an
incident, we've corrected it to 25 feet.
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