A man who was placed in the back of a police car for recording outside a Colorado Springs police station will receive a $41,000 settlement.
Terrell Clayton, who runs the YouTube Channel, News Now Colorado, was conducting a First Amendment audit outside the station on November 2 when he was confronted by two Colorado Springs police officers.
The cops demanded his identification, telling him he was “acting suspicious” by recording the police station, informing him it was disorderly conduct.
When Clayton continued to debate the cops on the law, given that they had no clue, they ripped the camera out of his hands, and placed him in the back of a patrol car.
Part of the settlement requires the Colorado Springs Police Department to add to its general order the following statement:
“Taking photographs or recording from a public place in and of itself does not constitute suspicious activity.”
You would think they would know this by now, not that they ever teach it in the police academy, but there have been numerous videos showing cops proven wrong about photography being a suspicious activity.
So let me repeat for the cops and their apologists who are still clueless:
“Taking photographs or recording from a public place in and of itself does not constitute suspicious activity.”
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette:
The city also must create and publish a “roll-call video addressing the First Amendment right to record police activity,” and it will require officers to view that video by the end of the year, the settlement said.
Those actions are “underway,” police spokesman Lt. Howard Black said Wednesday.
The video Clayton posted shows him zooming his camera in on police vehicles parked inside the lot before an officer approaches and asks Clayton his name.
The photographer declines to provide it, saying he’s filming squad cars for a story but doesn’t plan to disclose license plate information.
A second officer questions Clayton about pointing the camera toward the lot, saying he’s “not buying” the story. That officer threatens to detain Clayton if he doesn’t identify himself, eventually grabbing Clayton and taking his camera.
“We’ll do it my way,” the officer is heard saying.
Clayton is led to the patrol car, where he continues recording on a cellphone before that also is confiscated. Clayton said the officers threatened to arrest him if he did not provide an ID, which he eventually did.
“I was very shocked at how quickly these officers violated my rights,” he says in a description of the video.
But even though it’s been six months since the incident, Colorado Springs police have not yet decided whether the two cops will face disciplinary action for costing taxpayers $41,000.
