Recording Police in Maine: No Express Right, and an Obstruction Offence That Needs a Physical Act

The starting point is that Maine did not legislate on this subject. A full-text search of the Maine Revised Statutes, current through October 1, 2025, returns no section containing "record a law enforcement" or "law enforcement activity," so Maine has nothing resembling the express rights Nevada wrote at NRS 171.1233 or New York wrote at Civil Rights Law §79-p. Maine also did not follow the states that went the other way: there is no Maine offence keeping observers a fixed number of feet from an officer after a warning, and searches for "body camera" return nothing in the statutes while "body-worn camera" appears only in 15 MRS §57, the no-knock warrant restriction. The Maine answer therefore has to be read out of the offences a person filming could conceivably be charged under.

The first of those is obstructing government administration, 17-A MRS §751. Its actus reus is unusually specific: a person is guilty only if the person intentionally interferes by force, violence or intimidation or by any physical act with a public servant performing or purporting to perform an official function. Every listed mode of interference is physical or coercive. Holding a phone, standing on a public sidewalk and narrating are none of them, and Maine's drafting gives no residual "otherwise interferes" clause for a prosecutor to reach into. The section is a Class D crime under subsection 3, and subsection 2 removes three things from its scope entirely: refusal by a person to submit to an arrest or detention, escape from official custody as defined in §755, and intentional interference by a person under Title 21-A, section 674, subsection 2, paragraph E, the election law provision. Paragraphs A and B of subsection 2 were rewritten and paragraph C added by PL 2021, c. 568, §1.

The second is refusing to submit to arrest or detention, 17-A MRS §751-B, which matters because it is what a person filming their own arrest might be charged with. It requires an intent to hinder, delay or prevent a law enforcement officer from effecting the arrest or detention of that person, and then splits by conduct: refusing to stop on request or signal is a Class E crime, using physical force against the officer is a Class D crime, and creating a substantial risk of bodily injury to the officer is a Class D crime. Subsection 2 supplies two defences, one that the person reasonably believed the person attempting the arrest was not a law enforcement officer, and one available on the refusal-to-stop paragraph that the officer acted unlawfully in attempting the arrest or detention.

Audio is governed by Title 15, chapter 102, and Maine's definitions do the work rather than a consent rule stated as such. Section 709(4) defines "intercept" as hearing or recording, or aiding another to hear or record, the contents of a wire or oral communication through an intercepting device by a person other than three categories: the sender or receiver of that communication, a person within the range of normal unaided hearing or subnormal hearing corrected to not better than normal, and a person given prior authority by the sender or receiver. A person talking to an officer is a party to that conversation and so is not intercepting it. Section 709(5) narrows the protected class of speech as well, defining oral communications as those uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying that expectation, which is difficult to establish for an officer speaking aloud on a public street. Section 709(3) also excludes from "intercepting device" a hearing aid or similar device used to correct subnormal hearing to not better than normal.

What the chapter does prohibit is worth knowing before recording a conversation you are not part of. Section 710(1) makes it a Class C crime for a person other than the listed officials, carrying out practices otherwise permitted by the chapter, to intentionally or knowingly intercept, attempt to intercept, or procure another to intercept a wire or oral communication. Section 710(3) makes it a further Class C crime to intentionally or knowingly disclose or use the contents of a wire or oral communication knowing it was obtained through interception. Section 710(5) makes mere possession of a device designed or commonly used for intercepting wire or oral communications a Class C crime, and §710(6) makes selling or furnishing one a Class B crime. Section 710(2) is a separate trap for anyone who edits footage: a person who knowingly or intentionally edits, alters or tampers with a tape, transcription or other sound recording, or knows of such editing, and presents it in a judicial proceeding or a proceeding under oath without fully indicating the nature of the changes and the original state of the recording, commits a Class C crime.

One structural point makes the Maine position clearer than it first appears. Chapter 102 reaches wire communications and oral communications only. Silent video is neither, so a camera recording images without sound is outside the chapter altogether, and the only Maine questions that remain are whether the person filming committed a physical act of interference under §751 and whether they were lawfully present.

There is no Maine offence of recording an officer, so the exposure comes from the surrounding conduct. Obstructing government administration under 17-A MRS §751 is a Class D crime, and it requires intentional interference by force, violence or intimidation or by a physical act with a public servant performing or purporting to perform an official function; the section does not apply to a refusal to submit to arrest or detention, to escape from official custody, or to intentional interference under 21-A MRS §674(2)(E). Refusing to submit to arrest or detention under §751-B is a Class E crime where the person refuses to stop on request or signal and a Class D crime where the person uses physical force against the officer or creates a substantial risk of bodily injury, in each case only with the intent to hinder, delay or prevent the arrest or detention.

On the recording side, the offences under 15 MRS §710 do not reach a participant: §709(4) puts the sender or receiver of a communication outside the definition of intercept. Where a person records a conversation they are not part of, §710(1) makes the interception a Class C crime, §710(3) makes knowing disclosure or use of intercepted contents a Class C crime, §710(5) makes possession of an interception device a Class C crime, and §710(6) makes sale of one a Class B crime. Section 710(2) separately makes it a Class C crime to present an edited recording in a judicial proceeding or a proceeding under oath without disclosing the changes and the original state of the recording.