Walk It Through: Filming in Public
Sidewalk to lobby to trespass warning, decision by decision.
You are on the public sidewalk outside a police station, filming the building. An officer walks out and asks what you are doing.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
Recording audio, filming on private property, cameras inside a courtroom and the separate rules for federal buildings are outside these five decisions. Whether a particular order to stop was lawful is decided afterwards rather than on the pavement.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Investigative detentionA brief seizure of a person on reasonable suspicion, lasting only as long as it takes to confirm or dispel that suspicion. The person is not free to leave, and is not under arrest either.
- Public forumA category of government property, such as a street or a park, where speech restrictions face the highest scrutiny. Other government property falls into categories where more restriction is permitted.
- Reasonable suspicionSpecific facts an officer can put into words that point to a particular person being involved in a particular crime. It is the threshold for a brief investigative stop.
- Seizure of a personThe moment a person is no longer free to leave, by physical force or by a show of authority they submit to. Everything the Fourth Amendment requires starts counting from that moment.
- Exclusionary ruleEvidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is generally inadmissible in a criminal prosecution. The case that applied the rule to the states came out of Ohio.
- Invoking counselStating unambiguously that you want a lawyer, which is what stops custodial questioning. Asking whether one is needed, or whether asking for one looks bad, is not the same as asking for one.
- Minor misdemeanorThe bottom rung of the Ohio code. No jail term at all, a fine capped at one hundred and fifty dollars, and a section that says an officer shall issue a citation rather than arrest unless one of four exceptions applies.
- Pretrial motionA request to the court decided before trial, a motion to suppress evidence among them. The rule puts all of them within thirty-five days after arraignment or seven days before trial, whichever is earlier.
- School safety zoneA school building, the premises of a school, a school activity and a school bus. The zone is what the offense attaches to rather than the building alone.