*PINAC* correspondent Jeff Gray entered Daytona City Hall/Police Department to submit a public records request, which despite what the Florida Sunshine Law states, have proven extremely difficult for government officials to abide by throughout the entire state.
If you remember, it got us detained by police in Hialeah [__last month.__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/09/14/miami-police-threaten-arrest-man-making-public-records-request-miami-city-hall/)
But this time, it was surprisingly easy with a clerk allowing him to video record the daily visitor log, which is allowable by state law and probably the easiest public record to obtain considering it is sitting right there in the front lobby.
You may wonder why he would care about the daily log. The point is to get them accustomed to us walking in and asking for public records. It’s something we should all learn to do in our respective states. Start simple, so when you ask for something major, they are prepared to handle it.
Unfortunately, Daytona police had to go and ruin this positive experience when they detained him outside for video recording cop cars for b-footage.
Cops are funny like that. They think it’s suspicious for a man to openly record the cars leaving the parking lot, not realizing anybody could just walk in and make a public records request of the surveillance video recording the cars coming and going through the gate.
Under Florida law, that person wouldn’t even have to provide a name or identification, so maybe we should start doing that just to send them a message that we allowed to observe them in the line of duty.
But the two plainclothes cops that confronted Gray in front of the police station weren’t too keen on the law considering they were under the impression that Florida’s wiretapping law pertains to areas where they don’t have an expectation of privacy, giving him the old “I didn’t consent” to being recorded.
So maybe they should check out [__Gray’s other video__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/10/12/pinac-correspondent-produces-primer-florida-cops-still-clueless-wiretapping-law/) where he speaks to an assistant state attorney who had written an article two years ago that confirmed citizens are allowed to record cops on duty with or without their consent.
Although he was asked several times, Gray never provided identification nor his name, keeping in full control of the conversation.
Instead, he handed them the yellow card pictured below, which is all they needed to know.
He eventually walked away to his car and drove off, with them no doubt writing down his plate number so they could run his name through their crime database, which is not exactly legal either (hopefully Joel Chandler will comment as to why as I have a video of him giving a detailed explanation, which I will eventually upload).
