It Is Not Illegal To Record Cops in New Haven. But You Might Still Get Arrested, Charged, and Convicted for Doing So.

Radley Balko | November 15, 2010
Reason Magazine
Nov. 17, 2010

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a SWAT raid on New Haven nightclub. The raid was for suspected underage drinking. In addition to the obvious overkill show of force, police also threatened and allegedly arrested a Quinnipiac University student for attempting to record the raid with their cell phones (the police say the student was arrested for assaulting officers and disrupting the raid). This was a big story in New Haven, and it prompted a statement from both the mayor and the chief of police affirming that it is perfectly legal to record on-duty cops in New Haven.

At about the same time, another man was arrested in New Haven for recording the cops. On September 25, Luis Luna was arrested for filming an arrest outside of a New Haven bar with his cell phone. Officially, Luna was charged with interfering with police, but the police report itself specifically says that Luna was arrested for "filming", and makes no mention of him interfering with the arrest in any other way. (You can read the report here [PDF].)

The report also says that Luna's arrest was ordered not by a rank-and-file cop, but by Assistant Chief Ariel Melendez, as in the assistant chief of the New Haven Police Department. According to the New Haven Independent, when Luna got his phone back, the arrest video had been deleted. His phone did, however, include the photo at right, which looks to be an image mistakenly captured while the cops were fiddling with Luna's phone.

After the nightclub incidents made headlines, New Haven Police Chief Frank Limon assured the local media that he told his officers, "Assume you're being videotaped all the time when you're out there." And here's what New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said on October 4 in response to the nightclub raid:

This is America. Anyone can film anytime they want, including you, me and the PD while on duty. It is not my understanding that this is why the QU student was arrested.

Perhaps not. But it is why Luis Luna was arrested. And on October 8, four days after DeStefano unequivocally affirmed the legality of recording on-duty cops, Luna appeared in court to answer the charge. Here's what happened next...

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