Greenville County, SC Privacy & Surveillance: Recording & Consent Laws (2026)

Adopted by Ord. 4053 on 10-17-2006, § 15-10 states its purpose as making it unlawful, and setting a penalty, for interfering with a county law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of duty. The prohibition in subsection (b) reaches assault, battery, and any physical or verbal act that resists, hinders, impedes or interferes with an officer, plus aiding or abetting such an act, but it applies only within the unincorporated area of the county. Subsection (d) then narrows that reach: the section does not apply to constitutionally protected conduct such as the peaceful questioning or protesting of government action, which covers a bystander who stands nearby, asks an officer questions, or records an encounter without physically obstructing the officer's duties.

A violation is a misdemeanor punished within the jurisdictional limits of magistrate's court, and each day or portion of a day the violation continues is a separate offense. The ordinance carries its own severability clause, so if a court strikes any subsection, subsection or clause as unconstitutional, the rest of § 15-10 stays in force, and it took effect on the date of its adoption. Because the ordinance is written around physical or verbal interference rather than the act of recording itself, merely filming, photographing or observing an officer from a lawful vantage point in a public place falls on the protected side of the line unless the person's conduct also crosses into resisting, hindering or impeding the officer's duties.