Crime & Safety

Your Take: Should People Be Able To Sue Police Officers Who Interfere With Vidoetaping Them On The Job?

A bill pending in the Connecticut legislature would allow people to sue police officers who interfere when someone tries to take a picture or videotape them on the job.

A bill before the Connecticut legislature would allow people to sue police officers who interfere when someone is trying to take a picture of them, or videotape them, while the police officers are working. 

CTnewsjunkie.com reports:

"The Judiciary Committee forwarded a bill to the state Senate Friday that would give individuals the ability to bring a civil lawsuit against police officers who interfere with their ability to videotape or photograph officers on the job.State Sen. Martin Looney D-New Haven, first introduced the bill in 2011 on the heels of two disturbing incidents: the 2009 arrest of New Haven priest James Manship by East Haven cops for his video-recording their alleged harassment of Latino shopowners, and the 2010 arrest of Luis Luna, who recorded an arrest on a public street.The bill passed the Senate in both 2011 and 2012 but failed to receive a vote in the House both years. In a phone interview Sunday, Looney said the House ran out of time to bring up a bill that would have been a “talker.” He said he hopes this year they will bring up the bill in a more timely fashion."

Read more at ctnewsjunkie.com.

What do you think? Should people be allowed to videotape police officers who are working? If a police officer interferes, should that person be allowed to sue the police officer? Tell us in the comments below. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.