Oklahoma Working to Pass Bills Making It Illegal to Publish Photo of law enforcement

Klaw.com ^ | 25 February 2021 | Critter

[BackRoads775]

Oklahoma legislators are working to pass another bill, HB 2273. It's a companion bill to SB 6 which is working it's way through the state senate. Both bills would make it illegal to photograph or video law enforcement and publish it on an online site, forum or social media platform. There's been a lot of confusion and concern with the two bills as you can imagine. So what exactly will the new law do and what are the penalties for violating the law? Also, if this does become law when will it take effect?

[Balding_Eagle]

How are they going to stop dashcam that automatically upload to the cloud?

[usurper]

Be prepared to be photographed in public just like everyone else. Follow the law and your training and it will all work out fine.

As a retired LEO of 25 years I totally agree. You do not have a right to privacy when you are in public especially if you are a public servant.

[zeugma]

Apparently some animals are more equal than others.

[freeandfreezing]

The law as it is written includes provisions about intent, and whether a reasonable person would consider that the publishing of information about a police officer such as their name, place of employment, or photograph which "would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress or financial loss to the law enforcement officer, or to the family, household member or intimate partner of the law enforcement officer."

Under that test naming a police officer in a news article, or showing their picture, or saying that they in fact work for the police department could be subject to prosecution depending on the intent of the publisher. That's a ridiculous idea, and likely to lead to all kinds of abuse.

Presumably a defense to the law would be that the intent of the poster was simply educational, or news reporting, so that the 11:00 news anchor isn't at risk of being arrested and charged.

On its face the law would seem to raise a question of whether or not a police department arresting a police officer could publish their name and booking photograph.

It is a bad law. The protections it is trying to create against what might be called doxing of police officers should apply to everyone, or no one.

[EnderWiggin1970]

So when someone photographed my wife and kids posing with local Oklahoma LEO as they brought bags of goodies to the police station to support them, that would be against the law. Goofy nonsense.

[thegagline]

Public servants. Just who are the servants?

[Valpal1]

They are idiots with bad legal counsel.

They are just going to end up losing an expensive lawsuit.

[willyd]

That won’t even begin to keep you secure. Facebook will ghost cookie your browser and compare it to your other recent logins and reduce you down to a few hundred options... did you also VPN your phone? The one that is pinging the other router on your xfinity box and tied to your actual profile? Okay... did you get your 4 closest neighbors to do the same? Did you remove the Metadata from the Google glasses before your uploaded? Did you buy tthose glasses with a credit card? Did you pass any cell towers on your way out to film the police? Did you remove the toll tag from your vehicle? What about the smart box you put in your car to get cheaper insurance? How many cameras did you get picked up on that day? Stop at the convenience store or use a credit card to fill up on gas nearby? ... not trying to be a smart alec... just trying to make a point about how much information is collected on the average person every day.
It truly is staggering .

[Wallace T.]

This looks like a right wing version of authoritarian control of speech. It is trivial compared to the massive left wing authoritarian control through speech codes, cancel culture, Big Tech censorship of anyone to the right of Mitt Romney, FBI harassment of key Trump supporters, etc. This is not a good law proposed by Oklahoma legislators, but we need to keep this in perspective.

[redcatcherb412]

Plus how many police dash and bodycams were you recorded on as you broke this new law recording them?

[cuban leaf]

I left out a lot of details. I used to work in law enforcement relations for a major cell provider.

It can be done...

[cuban leaf]

My last response was on my phone, so I was brief.

Bottom line for me, personally is that all you have to do is set up your Facebook account so that only your friends can see content. When I had one, that was always the way I had it set up. Anyway, at that point anything you share there is not being “published”. It’s being shared with friends. End of story.

Facebook pictures and videos are the 21st century version of slide shows and photo albums.

Now, if your friends outside of Oklahoma’s jurisdiction want to then share it, well, that’s their business.

I’ve said for years that if you want to do “nefarious” stuff on the internet it’s all about using an “anonymous” account, using “bought used” smart phones and laptops that are not connected to any of your “real” accounts, and are only accessed from free wi-fi sites - and you wear some sort of disguise when using them, in case of security cameras.

And when you’re not using those devices they are stored somewhere other than your property.

And NEVER take your cell phone with you. That’s why drug dealers use burners. I can go to my account in Google and see everywhere I’ve been, every day, for many years back. That means cops can too. It’s a form of “crime investigation via time travel”.

[moviefan8]

Bad idea for a law.