Your First Amendment right to livestream cops

Yes, you are well within your First Amendment rights to livestream video of police officers in action. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit confirmed that in a ruling released this week.

It really shouldn’t have been a question. Courts have, on a number of occasions, upheld the right to photograph or take video of police officers.

But police officers in Winterville, North Carolina, insisted that livestreaming that video on social media is different. During a 2018 traffic stop—which car passenger Dijon Sharpe started sharing on Facebook Live—an officer tried to take away Sharpe’s phone, calling it an “officer safety issue.” Another officer told Sharpe, “In the future, if you’re on Facebook Live, your phone is gonna be taken from you…and if you don’t want to give up your phone, you’ll go to jail.”