NYPD Union Wants 10- to 15-Foot Buffer Between Police and Videotapers

Pictured: NYPD Officer Bekim Becaj tells Ruben An, behind the camera, to back away from police activity on a Manhattan sidewalk in 2014. (Full video here.) An is now suing the city in federal court.

By Kings County Politics News Service

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — New York City’s rank-and-file union president said Tuesday that the "Right to Record Act," proposed this month by City Councilmember Jumaane D. Williams of East New York as a means of protecting civilians videotaping police, makes no legal sense.

The U.S. Constitution already allows citizens to make public recordings, argued NYPD Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch.

The proposed act, Lynch said, would only encourage activists to interfere with police activity.

So, instead of pass the Right to Record Act, Lynch suggested that the City Council "help the public understand that standing in close proximity to a police officer who is making an arrest creates a dangerous situation for all involved."

"Helpful legislation would establish a minimum safe distance that onlookers must maintain from police officers," Lynch said.

The police union's spokesperson, Al O’Leary, added in an interview with Kings County Politics that establishing a minimum safe distance for people to record police actions would prevent public interference with police in sometimes dangerous situations.

The buffer could be 10 or 15 feet, O'Leary said — just as long as there are clearly established parameters.

In the bill's current language, there is no clause specifying how far or close a person has to be from a police officer while recording his or her activities. The bill does say, however, that "nothing in this chapter shall be construed to permit a person to engage in actions that physically interfere with an official and lawful police function."

Councilmember Williams, who proposed the Right to Record Act, has argued that his bill "is not anti-police." Rather, it's "about wanting police to be better at their jobs."

Williams said he proposed the bill as "a response to several instances where people, who were recording police activity — which is their constitutional right — were either arrested on trumped-up charges, detained, or had their property damaged for exercising their constitutional right.”

The bill, as proposed, prohibits police officers from interfering with or intimidating individuals trying to record their activities. It also establishes a cause of legal action for violating the Act, in which aggrieved individuals can argue their case in court not only on the basis of the First Amendment, but also on the basis of a codified statute.

Additionally, the measure requires the NYPD to submit reports to both the mayor and City Council with precinct-by-precinct data on arrest numbers; criminal and civil summons issued; and the race, ethnicity, gender and age of each person arrested or summonsed.

Several other Brooklyn lawmakers strongly support Williams' bill, which is co-sponsored by Manhattan City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal. Supporters include Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte and City Councilmembers Inez Barron, Rafael Espinal and Carlos Menchaca.

“The Right to Record Act reinforces the protections of New Yorkers to rightfully record activity taking place in public spaces," Clarke said. "It is our hope that members of our community are not intimidated or prohibited from recording clearly visible activity in public. As we all work to strengthen our minority communities’ relationship with police forces across the country, we must respect the rights of citizens who seek to lawfully record encounters with police in their communities.”

Bichotte said the legislation is very timely in the wake of the recent police shootings of two unarmed black men: Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philandro Castile of Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

Videos of both killings were shot in close range.

“The footage from those shootings allowed the country to bear witness to the disproportionate level of brutality that many black and brown men and women face every day," Bichotte said. "Councilmember Williams has always been at the forefront of fair-minded legislation that seeks to balance the rights and protections of citizens and law enforcement.”

Bichotte said she plans to introduce similar legislation at the state level.

A version of this article originally appeared on the Kings County Politics news site.