How do police feel about First Amendment auditors?

Police will sometimes charge auditors with disorderly conduct when they engage in behavior that could be considered unlawful. Auditors attempt to exercise their First Amendment right to photograph and record in public while avoiding committing any crime.

What is the point of First Amendment auditors?

A First Amendment auditor’s focus is to identify the proper or improper response of public employees when in the presence of a camera.

How do you successfully pass the First Amendment Audit?

Denying that right, or treating someone exercising that right as engaging in “suspicious” or unlawful activity, is how a successful “First Amendment Audit” happens. Add the use of force or an arrest, and you’ve made someone’s day. Another flashpoint is public comment period during a governing body meeting.

What is police auditing?

The police auditor has emerged as an alternative form of citizen oversight of the police. Instead, police auditors are responsible for monitoring/auditing the citizen complaint process. Most auditors also review aspects of police operations. Some police auditor offices do investigate individual complaints, however.

Do “First Amendment” Audits lead to insultation of police officers?

Persons conducting “First Amendment” audits appear to follow pre-determined responses when contacted by law enforcement. They are also inclined to make insulting comments that are intended to provoke a response from the officer (s).

What is a First Amendment Audit?

But a growing movement of self-described “First Amendment Auditors”—individuals who specifically film on public property and police stations to test the rights to film in a public space—has forced some police departments to review how to respond to First Amendment audits.

Why do people film police officers during audits?

During these “audits,” people film police buildings and officers. Once contacted, they can become aggressive, challenging and often seek to be detained by law enforcement while they are filming so they can post the video of the encounter online. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights protects a person’s freedom of speech.

Were men filming voters in Littleton ‘First Amendment auditors’?

Newsworthy First Amendment Audits November 2, 2020: Men Filming Voters in Littleton Were “First Amendment Auditors,” Police Say Two men, one armed and wearing a tactical vest, filmed voters dropping off ballots in Littleton, Colorado.