The problem is that voices were (or could have been) recorded.
In many states it's legal for citizens to take a photograph without the consent of the subject, but it's illegal to record a voice.
I suspect that had the citizen turned off his cell phone's audio (if that's possible), he wouldn't have been arrested in the first place.
If a person is in public, do they have a right to privacy as far as their voice is concerned? I’d say no.
Not always.
A young man I’ve known most of his life is a Port St. Lucie cop. I was at a party at his house about a month ago and I asked him about just this subject in regards to the person arrested while filming an arrest from his own front yard.
He said if he thought the person was taping to try to catch him or the other officers doing wrong then he would take the tape.
I argued that it was legal and he argued that it was not.
I simply told him it was a subject that would be decided by the courts.
I believe you are referring to eavesdropping statutes.
It's not illegal to record a voice. It's illegal to record a "private conversation".
Police making an arrest on a public street is anything but a private conversation.
I suspect that had the citizen turned off his cell phone's audio (if that's possible), he wouldn't have been arrested in the first place.
I believe you're right. Do you know if the audio part been court tested recently?