Recording Police

Alabama never enacted an express right to record police, so the question is answered by the definitions in its eavesdropping article. Section 13A-11-30(1) defines eavesdropping as…

Alaska has no statute that expressly protects filming a police officer, and it has no general obstruction offence that could be used against someone who does. The controlling provision…

Arizona's only statute aimed at filming police, A.R.S. § 13-3732, has never taken effect. It would have made it a class 3 misdemeanor to keep video recording law enforcement activity…

Arkansas never enacted an express right to record the police, and it never enacted a stand-back distance either. Two other sections do the work. Ark. Code § 5-60-120 makes Arkansas a…

California is one of the few states that answers this by statute rather than by case law alone. Penal Code § 148(g) says that photographing or making an audio or video recording of a…

Colorado is one of the few states that put the right to film officers into its own sentence of statute. C.R.S. § 16-3-311(1) says a person "has the right to lawfully record any…

Connecticut is one of a small group of states that put the right to film police into a statute with a remedy attached. CGS § 52-571j makes the employer of a peace officer who…

Delaware has never enacted a standalone right to record police, so the answer is built from its wiretap chapter instead. 11 Del. C. § 2402(a) makes intentional interception of a wire…

The District has no statute creating a right to record police, and it does not need an all-party consent workaround either. Two things do the work. D.C. Code § 23-542(b)(3) makes the…

Florida is an all-party consent state, but that rule reaches less far than it sounds. Fla. Stat. § 934.03(2)(d) makes interception lawful only when every party consents, while §…

Georgia has never enacted a statute that expressly gives you the right to film a police officer. What it has is O.C.G.A. 16-11-62, the eavesdropping and surveillance offense, and every…

Hawaii protects the right to film police, but it never wrote a standalone right-to-record statute. Act 164, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, instead inserted a matching proviso into the…

Idaho has no standalone right-to-record statute, and it does not need one to make recording your own encounter lawful. Idaho Code § 18-6702(2)(d) says it is lawful for a person to…

Illinois writes the right to film police directly into its eavesdropping statute. 720 ILCS 5/14-2(e) says nothing in the eavesdropping article prohibits any individual who is not a law…

No Indiana statute prohibits photographing or filming police, and Indiana's wiretap law is a one party consent law, so recording your own encounter with an officer is not an unlawful…

Iowa has no statute granting an express right to film police, but it does not need one: Iowa Code section 727.8(3)(a) exempts from the eavesdropping offence any recording made by a…

Kansas has no statute that expressly grants a right to record police, and none that bans it. The controlling provision is the breach of privacy statute, K.S.A. 21-6101, which is a…

Kentucky is a one-party-consent state, and the consent can be yours. KRS 526.010 defines eavesdropping as recording an oral or wire communication "of others" without the consent of at…

Louisiana never enacted a statute that bans filming police, and its wiretap law is one-party consent, so a bystander who is part of the exchange may record audio as well as video. What…

Maine has no statute granting a right to record law enforcement. The phrases "law enforcement activity" and "record a law enforcement" return nothing in the Maine Revised Statutes, and…

Maryland has no statute granting a right to record the police. What governs instead is the Maryland Wiretap Act at Courts and Judicial Proceedings sections 10-401 through 10-410, which…

Massachusetts has no statute granting a right to record police. It has G.L. c. 272, section 99, one of the strictest wiretap laws in the country, and the operative word in it is…

Michigan has no statute granting an express right to film police, and no statute forbidding it either. What governs is the 1966 eavesdropping chapter of the Michigan Penal Code, and…

Minnesota is a one-party consent state. Minn. Stat. section 626A.02, subdivision 2, paragraph (d) makes it lawful for a person not acting under color of law to record a wire…

Mississippi has enacted no right-to-record statute and no buffer-zone offence, and its obstruction offence contains no recording proviso either way. What makes filming and recording an…

Missouri has no statute that grants a right to record police and no statute that forbids it. What decides the question is the narrow reach of Missouri's wiretap law, Mo. Rev. Stat. §§…

Montana has no statute that grants an express right to record police, and it does not need one to make open recording lawful. The offense in 45-8-213(1)(c), MCA, is committed only by…

Nebraska has no statute that creates an express right to record police, and equally none that makes recording an offense or imposes a stand-back distance. What governs is the…

Nevada does not leave the right to film police to case law. NRS 171.1233, added in the 2020 32nd Special Session, says a person who is not under arrest or in the custody of a peace…

New Hampshire never enacted a right-to-record law, so the question is answered by its wiretap chapter. RSA 570-A:2, I makes intercepting an oral communication without the consent of…

New Jersey is a one-party consent state, so recording an encounter you are part of is lawful under N.J.S.A. 2A:156A-4(d), and there is no New Jersey statute that bans filming police…

New York is one of the few states that put the right to record police into its own statute rather than leaving it to case law. Civil Rights Law § 79-p, headed "Recording certain…

North Carolina never enacted an express right to record police, and it never enacted a buffer law either. What it has is a one-party consent wiretap statute: N.C. Gen. Stat. §…

North Dakota has no statute that grants a right to record police, and it has no buffer-zone offense of the kind Florida and Louisiana enacted. What it has is an eavesdropping statute…

Ohio has no statute that bans recording a police officer and no buffer-zone law keeping bystanders a set distance away. The General Assembly went the other direction in 2023: R.C…

Oklahoma protects filming police, but not through a standalone right. Laws 2015, c. 286, Section 1 added a sentence to the obstructing-an-officer statute itself, 21 O.S. Section 540…

Oregon is one of the few states that forbids recording an in-person conversation unless every participant is specifically informed, and violating ORS 165.540(1)(c) is a Class A…

Pennsylvania is an all-party consent state, and 18 Pa.C.S. § 5703 grades an intentional interception of an oral communication as a felony of the third degree, one of the harshest…

Rhode Island never enacted an express right to record the police. A full-text search of the General Laws titles where such a provision would sit, Criminal Offenses, Criminal Procedure…

South Carolina has no statute granting a right to film police and no buffer-zone offense keeping bystanders back from an arrest. What protects you instead is the state wiretap chapter…

South Dakota has no statute granting or naming a right to record law enforcement, and it has no buffer-zone offense of the kind several states added after 2022. The two questions that…

Tennessee has never enacted a statute granting a right to record police, and a full-text search of the Tennessee Code turns up no such provision. What it has instead, since July 1…

Texas has never enacted an express statutory right to film police, so the legal boundary for a bystander with a phone is set by the offense of Interference with Public Duties, Texas…

Utah wrote the protection directly into the interference offense. Utah Code Section 76-8-305(4) says that recording a peace officer with a camera, mobile phone or other photographic…

Vermont sits in an unusual position: it neither grants an express right to film police nor restricts it, because the Legislature has never enacted a wiretapping or eavesdropping…

Virginia has no statute granting an express right to record police, and it does not need one, because Virginia is a one-party consent state. Va. Code § 19.2-62(B)(2) makes it no…

Washington is an all-party consent state, and the rule lives in the Washington Privacy Act at RCW 9.73.030. That section reaches only a private communication or a private conversation…

West Virginia has no statute granting a right to record law enforcement. What it has instead is a one-party consent wiretap law: W. Va. Code §62-1D-3(e) makes it lawful to intercept a…

Wisconsin is a one-party consent state. Wis. Stat. § 968.31(2)(c) makes it lawful for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, electronic or oral communication when…

Wyoming has no express right-to-record statute, and it does not need one to make recording a traffic stop lawful. W.S. 7-3-702(b)(iv) exempts anyone who is a party to a communication…