Seattle City Council to consider law protecting people who watch, record police
The Seattle City Council on Wednesday will begin considering a proposal to enshrine in law the rights of the public to observe and record police.
Watching and recording police are protected to a great extent by the First Amendment, and the Seattle Police Department in 2008 adopted a policy meant to protect those rights.
But Councilmember Lisa Herbold’s proposed ordinance would go further by making the policy part of the Seattle Municipal Code and by giving people who believe their police-observation rights have been violated the ability to claim damages from the city.
Herbold’s ordinance cites recent fatal shootings by officers and of officers as proof that police-observation rights are important.
Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/city-council-to-consider-law-protecting-people-who-watch-record-police/