Cell Phone Confiscation A Murky Legal Issue

Where do you draw the line between protecting a citizen’s rights and protecting public safety?  More specifically, when can a citizen, or member of the news media, legally videotape a police action in progress without running afoul of the law?  Take for example a recent incident in Waco involving reporter Kristen Crow.  The young journalist and several citizens were videotaping outside the McLennan County Courthouse as sheriff’s deputies investigated a “shooting victim (who) collapsed in the street.”  That is, until a deputy saw what was happening and confiscated Crow’s cell phone reportedly saying, “Let me see your phone. We’re not doing this right now. Let me see your phone.”  Understandably the newspaper’s Publisher and Editor believe “Deputies clearly overstepped their authority” even though a Sheriff’s spokesman later explained the “intent” of the confiscation was “to keep potential evidence from ‘walking off.’”  A similar incident involving a citizen occurred in Austin on New Year’s Eve. West Point Graduate Antonio Buehler was arrested taking pictures of a DUI arrest of a woman he says he thought was being “assaulted” by an APD officer.