Document Type
Article
Abstract
With the advent, rise, and current ubiquity of cellphones and other forms of mobile recording devices, instances of police brutality, particularly among minority groups, are more frequently being recorded by private citizens and broadcasted for the entire world to see.
Many of these mobile videos have illustrated instances of police and other law enforcement officials severely beating, brutalizing, and in many cases, shooting and killing American citizens, most of whom are either African-American or Latino and are unarmed. On July 5, 2016, a video was uploaded of Alton Sterling, a black male, being fatally shot after an encounter with two police officers exerting excessive force against him. On July 6, 2016, another video surfaced, this time of Philando Castile, also a black male, being fatally shot by police in the presence of his girlfriend and young daughter while sitting in the front seat of their car. There are only two instances in a long and constantly growing list of black and other minority individuals who have been brutalized and often killed by law enforcement officials. Such unfortunate and untimely deaths have only gained national attention as a direct result of witnesses recording their encounters and uploading the videos onto the internet.
In response to this growing trend, law enforcement officials have begun to fight this new-age vigilante news reporting by seizing and deleting cellphone video footage by these witnesses. But what legal authority do police officials have to seize or delete cellphone footage from private citizens? And what implications might this authority have on evolving privacy interests? These are some of the questions that this paper will analyze and answer.
Part I of this Article examines cases that help illustrate the importance and need for mobile recording device footage to aid in the administration of justice. Part II discusses those constitutionally protected rights that are violated through the unlawful sequestering of a mobile video device and its footage. Finally, Part III outlines future considerations regarding the evolution of technology as it relates to the privacy interest of citizens and offers predictions as to how courts might address these issues in the future.
Recommended Citation
Tristan Montaque,
Policing the Police: Analyzing the Legal Implications of the Sequestration of Cellphone Video Footage,
22 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol22/iss2/3