Saginaw County, MI Privacy & Surveillance: Recording & Consent Laws (2026)

Ordinance #121, "Surveillance, Invasion of Privacy or Security on County Property," adopted October 18, 2022 and effective December 26, 2022, restricts filming inside specific county-owned buildings, not on public streets or sidewalks. Section 2(A) bars recording, photographing, broadcasting or livestreaming in any courtroom unless the presiding judge allows it, and bars recording jurors entirely. Section 2(C) is the one that reaches police work directly: recording Sheriff's deputies and personnel performing Sheriff's duties inside the Sheriff Administration Building is prohibited unless the County Sheriff gives prior written consent, which must be granted if the recording will not disrupt Sheriff's business or endanger deputies, other officers, informants or crime victims.

Parallel consent rules apply to the County Administration Building (County Controller's consent), the Clerk's Office (County Clerk's consent) and the Public Health Department (Public Health Officer's consent), though public reception areas of the Administration Building and the Animal Control Facility are carved out and recording is expressly allowed there subject only to content-neutral disruption rules. County Board and committee meetings are also expressly not covered by the ban. Section 3 requires the County Clerk to post the restrictions at building entrances, but Section 3 also says a missing posting does not excuse a violation.

The ordinance does not touch recording of deputies or officials on public roads, in parks, or at a traffic stop away from these named buildings; it is a building-access rule, not a general anti-recording law.