{"id":64,"date":"2012-01-13T09:50:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T14:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=64"},"modified":"2012-01-25T08:00:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T13:00:58","slug":"video-recording-the-police-can-be-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=64","title":{"rendered":"Video Recording the Police Can Be Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A citizen with a cellular phone was arrested for obstructing justice when he recorded the activities of Tampa, FL police officers investigating a disturbance call on May 1, 2011.\u00a0 Two officers were in a public parking lot in Ybor City checking on a reported fight at 2:30 am.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Dylan Patch began video recording the officers with a cell phone camera. In the blurry video shot by Patch, he was told by an officer, \u201cSir, please step back.\u201d\u00a0 Patch is asked three times to move back.\u00a0 Though Patch appears to comply, he is warned by an officer that, \u201cYou\u2019re interfering with our investigation right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patch is heard replying, \u201cI am not interfering with your investigation.\u00a0 Sir, I am recording, that is all.\u201d\u00a0 Patch is again told to move back, but in a loud voice directed at the officers he states, \u201cI am just letting you know, I\u2019m just letting you know, I am recording this conversation!\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, an officer says, \u201cOh, can I take this from you?\u201d\u00a0 Patch\u2019s cell phone is taken away and he is arrested for Obstructing an Officer Without Violence, F.S.S. 843.02<\/a>, which is a first degree misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

What is evident during the clips of the video shown in news reports is that the officers can be seen dealing with numerous other persons and there are chaotic sounding voices in the background.\u00a0 Just before the arrest, an officer is forced to turn his back on the disturbance to address the increasingly assertive Patch.<\/p>\n

This case went to trial in a Hillsborough County court on January 12, 2012 and the video was shown.\u00a0 Ofc. Clinton Harris testified, \u201cI asked the defendant to step back and move away from me\u2026his proximity to me being a distraction and an officer safety issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patch was found guilty.\u00a0 Judge Eric Myers said that though Patch had a right to record the officers, Patch\u2019s intrusive behavior put the officers at risk.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Patch had testified, \u201cYou can\u2019t really lie with video.\u00a0 Um, it’s proof.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently Judge Myers agreed.\u00a0 Patch was sentenced to 12 months probation, a $250.00 fine, and 50 hours of community service work.<\/p>\n

Compared with some other videos I have seen of people being arrested for video recording the police, I think the Tampa police officers made this arrest for the right reasons:\u00a0 Officer Safety and Criminal Obstruction.<\/p>\n

(photo courtesy Hillsborough, FL County Sheriff’s Office)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A citizen with a cellular phone was arrested for obstructing justice when he recorded the activities of Tampa, FL police officers investigating a disturbance call on May 1, 2011.\u00a0 Two officers were in a public parking lot in Ybor City checking on a reported fight at 2:30 am. Jeffrey Dylan Patch began video recording the officers with a cell phone camera. In the blurry video shot by Patch, he was told by an officer, \u201cSir, please step back.\u201d\u00a0 Patch is asked three times to move back.\u00a0 Though Patch appears to comply, he is warned by an officer that, \u201cYou\u2019re interfering with our investigation right now.\u201d Patch is heard replying, \u201cI … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","category-officer-safety"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/JeffreyPatch.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28xkp-12","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}