Setting the Record Straight: Citizens’ First Amendment Right to Video Police in Public

There is an alarming trend in the United States of citizens being arrested for videotaping police officers in public. Cell phones with video capabilities are ubiquitous and people are using their phones to document the behavior of police officers in a public place. The goal of this paper is to study the trend of citizen arrests currently in the news and recommend solutions to the problem of encroachment upon First Amendment rights through case law.