Nevada wrote the right to film police into NRS 171.1233

The operative grant sits in NRS 171.1233(1). It protects two separate things at once: the act of recording, and continued "custody and control of that recording and any property or instruments used by the person to record." The second sentence of that subsection addresses the situation people worry about most, an arrest mid-recording: a person under arrest or in custody "does not, by that status alone, forfeit the right to have any such recordings, property or instruments maintained and returned to him or her." Nevada therefore treats your phone and its contents as something you get back, not as something forfeited by the fact of being taken into custody.

Subsection 2 is written as a duty on the officer rather than as a right you assert afterward. It bars intentionally preventing or attempting to prevent recording, threatening you for recording, commanding you to stop when you were nevertheless authorized by law to record, and stopping, seizing or searching you because you recorded. Paragraph (e) goes further than most state analogues and bars unlawfully seizing the camera or phone, unlawfully destroying or seizing any recorded image, and copying the recording without your consent or without approval from an appropriate court. That last clause matters in practice: it is the copying of footage, not only its destruction, that the Legislature put off limits absent consent or a court order.

The definitions in subsection 3 decide how far the section reaches. "Law enforcement activity" means any activity by a peace officer acting under the color of law, so it is not limited to arrests or to encounters involving you. "Peace officer" is pulled from NRS 289.150 to 289.360, inclusive, which sweeps in sheriffs and their deputies, metropolitan police departments, city and town marshals, the Nevada Highway Patrol, school police officers under NRS 289.190, game wardens under NRS 289.280, enforcement agents designated by the Cannabis Compliance Board under NRS 289.355, and Gaming Control Board agents under NRS 289.360. Filming a Gaming Control Board agent working a casino floor and filming a trooper on I-15 fall under the same statute. "Record" means capturing or attempting to capture any moving or still image, sound or impression through any recording device or camera, "or by means of written notes or observations," and expressly includes capture for the purpose of broadcasting an event in real time. Writing down a badge number and live streaming a stop are both protected acts.

The limit is in the last sentence of subsection 1: nothing in it authorizes actions that interfere with or obstruct a law enforcement activity, or that violate any other law, in an effort to record. The offense on the other side of that line is NRS 199.280, resisting a public officer, which punishes willfully resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer discharging a legal duty. Where no dangerous weapon is used it is a misdemeanor; where a dangerous weapon other than a firearm is used it is a category D felony; where a firearm is used, or the person takes or tries to take a firearm from the officer, it is a category C felony.

Audio is governed by a different chapter and is where Nevada is most often described incorrectly. NRS 200.650 prohibits intruding on the privacy of other persons "by surreptitiously listening to, monitoring or recording" any private conversation by means of a listening device, unless authorized by one of the persons engaging in the conversation. Two elements have to be met before that section bites: the recording must be surreptitious, and the conversation must be private. An openly held phone pointed at an officer working in public satisfies neither. NRS 200.620, the section behind the "Nevada is a two-party state" shorthand, is confined to intercepting a wire communication, which NRS 200.610(2) defines as transmission by wire, cable or other similar connection. Penalties under NRS 200.690 are severe where those sections do apply: a category D felony, which NRS 193.130 sets at one to four years in state prison plus a discretionary fine of up to $5,000, together with civil liability for actual damages or liquidated damages of $100 per day of violation and not less than $1,000, punitive damages, and costs including a reasonable attorney fee.

The state also runs recording in the other direction. NRS 289.830 requires a law enforcement agency to make uniformed officers who routinely interact with the public wear a portable event recording device on duty, and requires agency policy to mandate activation at the initiation of any law enforcement or investigative encounter with a member of the public, prohibit deactivation until the encounter concludes, and retain video for not less than 15 days. Subsection 2 makes that footage a public record, requestable on a per incident basis.

NRS 171.1233 contains no penalty clause and creates no fine, so an officer who violates subsection 2 is not charged under it. The realistic routes are internal and civil. NRS 289.055 requires every law enforcement agency to establish and make available written procedures for investigating complaints and allegations of misconduct, and NRS 289.380 lets the governing body of a city or county create an advisory review board, with NRS 289.390 giving a panel of that board the power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas. Footage the agency holds is reachable under NRS 289.830(2) as a public record on a per incident basis, which is how a breach of NRS 171.1233 usually gets documented.

On the citizen side the exposure is NRS 199.280 rather than the recording statute. If the recording crosses into willfully resisting, delaying or obstructing, it is a misdemeanor where no dangerous weapon is involved, a category D felony where a dangerous weapon other than a firearm is used, and a category C felony where a firearm is used or taken from the officer. Recording audio surreptitiously, as opposed to openly, can also expose the recorder to NRS 200.690: a category D felony plus civil liquidated damages of $100 per day of violation with a $1,000 floor, punitive damages and attorney fees, recoverable by the person recorded.