In Arizona it will become illegal to film officers.
A law in the US state of Arizona will ban people from filming police officers at close range, while they face possible fines or jail time if they don’t comply.
Critics call the law a threat to free speech and the right to a free press.
The police are often filmed by bystanders, and the footage has occasionally resulted in officers’ misconduct being exposed.
The law takes effect on September 24 and will make it illegal to film police officers in the state within 2.4 meters.
People who ignore a verbal warning and continue filming risk a misdemeanor charge and up to 30 days in jail.
However, the law makes exceptions for people interacting with police or in closed areas on private property.
State Representative John Kavanagh — who sponsored the bill — has argued it’s needed because “police-hostile groups” sometimes “come dangerously close to potentially violent encounters.”
“Getting too close to police officers in tense situations is a dangerous practice that can end in tragedy,” he wrote in USA Today in March.
“Police officers have no way of knowing whether the person approaching them is an innocent bystander or an accomplice of the person they are arresting who might attack them.”
