Police are pushing back against Americans capturing them at work on cell phone cameras.

You see police arresting someone. Maybe it looks right and by the book. Maybe it doesn’t.

You pull out your cell phone and start to record. To make a video. And the next thing you know, you are arrested. The video-making bystander, in handcuffs. Facing charges.

It’s happening all around the country. Cell phones and their cameras are now everywhere. Police often don’t like to be recorded doing their work. It’s not always pretty.

But in the era of the citizen journalist, should making a video mean an arrest? Who’s the watchdog then?

This hour On Point: the battle over citizens videoing police.


Link: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/06/15/videotape-police