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The Trust Project

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Yes.

Filming police is a constitutionally protected right, multiple courts have ruled. 

The first news release from the city of Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder said he had died of a “medical emergency.” It was a citizen filming at the scene who first exposed that former police officer Derek Chauvin had leaned on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. 

Multiple federal circuit courts have concluded that citizens have a First Amendment right to film the police performing their duties in public. The U.S. Supreme Court has not directly ruled on a case addressing the issue. 

Bottom line: Taking photographs and video in public spaces is protected speech. Therefore, filming police in public spaces is protected. But the way courts interpret this right historically has varied.

For example, a 2022 law in Arizona made it illegal to knowingly take video of police officers from an 8-foot-or-closer vantage point without an officer’s permission. 

See full source list below.

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References:

U.S. Constitution, Consitution.Congress.Gov, accessed in June 2025.

Five things to know before recording the police, New York Public Radio, April 16, 2015.

Denver appeals court upholds right to record police, The Associated Press, July 11, 2022.

In era of transparency, Arizona law limits filming of police, The Associated Press, July 9, 2022.

The other George Floyd story: How media freedom led to conviction in his killer’s trial, The Conversation, April 22, 2021.

Filming police in the wake of George Floyd’s murder: A First Amendment right?, Minnesota Law Review, Oct. 22, 2021.

Type of Story: Fact-Check

Checks a specific statement or set of statements asserted as fact.