It Will Soon Be A Crime In AZ To Film The Police Less Than 8 Feet Away

PHOENIX, AZ — Arizona residents will soon be limited in how and where they can legally film police encounters after a bill that places restrictions on recording officers was signed into law last week.

House Bill 2319 requires people filming the police to stand no less than 8 feet from law enforcement activity. Violators risk a Class 3 misdemeanor charge if they do not step more than 8 feet back after one warning from an officer.

“Getting very close to police officers in tense situations is a dangerous practice that can end in tragedy,” state Rep. John Kavanagh, R-23, wrote in an opinion piece for The Arizona Republic.

A member of the House Military Affairs & Public Safety Committee, Kavanagh said in the piece that Tucson police pushed for the bill and that he supported it because some groups that are hostile to police “get dangerously close to potentially violent encounters” while recording incidents.

Stephen D. Solomon, who teaches First Amendment law at New York University, argued the new limitations would have a “chilling effect” when they become enforcable in September, according to The Washington Post.

“A blanket restriction is a violation of the First Amendment,” he told the Post.

Under the new law, signed Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey, a person who is a subject of police contact may record fewer than 8 feet away as long as they are not interfering with action such as a search, handcuffing or a sobriety test. If police activity happens in a structure on private property, people authorized to be on the property can record from less than 8 feet away, as long as they are in a separate room or area and officers do not determine the situation to be unsafe or the recorder to be interfering. Occupants of a vehicle stopped by police may record within 8 feet as well, if they do not interfere.

The law defines police activity as questioning a suspicious person, making an arrest, issuing a summons, enforcing a law, or handling an emotionally disturbed or disorderly person.