NYPD changes videotaping policy

(© 2004 Associated Press, Photo by BEBETO MATTHEWS)

By Lauren Bertolini

According to the First Amendment Press Center, the New York Police Department will no longer encourage officers to videotape all political demonstrations. An internal NYPD order was issued on the subject in April 2007 but it has only recently been reported.

The issue began when the New York Civil Liberties Union fought the NYPD's decision to videotape the 2004 Republican National Convention, claiming that it went beyond the NYPD's power. Soon after in September 2004, the NYPD enacted a new policy allowing officers to use photo and video equipment to "record images in situations outside of ongoing criminal internal investigations, standard evidence collection or processing procedures."

The NYCLU filed a claim against the NYPD in 2005 with U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight. Haight oversees the Handschu Consent Decree, a result of a 1971 case regarding the videotaping of legal political activity by the Black Panther that was videotaped by the NYPD. It created a set of guidelines for when the NYPD would be able to record political activity.

The police claim that the surveillance is a means of combatting terrorists and does not violate protesters' First Amendment Rights, according to the First Amendment Center.