Check out this article in the Boston Herald. Several civil rights attorneys, including our firm’s partner David Milton, are questioned about their thoughts on the latest case involving the Massachusetts Wiretap Statute and citizens’ right to record police officers. The Springfield police recently charged a woman with wiretapping, alleging that she secretly recorded her own arrest using her cell phone. This should not be a crime. Although secretly recording oral communications, even those of police officers, is illegal under the Massachusetts wiretap statute, state criminal laws cannot violate the federal Constitution. We hope that courts in Massachusetts, whether in this case or another, will explicitly rule that the First Amendment protects even secret recording of on-duty police officers.
This firm is experienced in handling cases involving the First Amendment right to record on-duty police officers in public spaces. Most notably, we represented Simon Glik, add: who was falsely arrested on Boston Common for videotaping police officers engaging in what he believed was police brutality. Mr. Glik’s civil rights lawsuit against the Boston police went to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and resulted in a landmark decision affirming the constitutional right to record the police.