Cellphone
video shows police officers trying to apprehend a suspect inside a
downtown Chicago train station in 2020. After a struggle with police,
the suspect was shot as he fled up the escalator with the officers in
pursuit. (photo: AP)
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post
23 April 21
readersupportednews.org
There is much to learn from how Darnella Frazier recorded the George Floyd arrest on her smartphone
arnella
Frazier changed the course of history by tapping record on her
smartphone. We can learn a lot from her about what to do when facing
down badges, guns and a potentially dangerous situation.
On the way to the convenience store last May, Frazier
came upon George Floyd being arrested by former police officer Derek
Chauvin. Then 17, Frazier recorded ten minutes and nine seconds during
which Floyd was murdered.
She kept a distance so her phone was not confiscated.
She used a steady hand.
And she posted her video on Facebook so the world could see the raw evidence.
“It was a master class,” says Allissa Richardson, a
journalism professor at the University of Southern California and the
author of “Bearing Witness While Black.” “She played an outsized role in
the guilty verdict for Chauvin.”
Cameras are transforming the conversation about police
violence, but they’re not all equally effective. Officer-worn body
cameras have become increasingly common in the U.S., yet can both
illuminate and obscure the truth. Smartphones now allow citizens to film
and even live-stream their own police encounters, yet the act of
recording can put people at risk in highly charged situations. Many
Black Americans are tired of having to document each time a cop kills a
Black person to prove it happened. And while the surge in smartphone
evidence has fueled calls for reform, one reason Frazier’s video stands
out is because it was so rare in actually leading to the conviction of
an officer.
So how can and should you use your phone to bear
witness? I spoke with lawyers, police, activists, photojournalists and
technologists to get their advice on how to best record the police, both
legally and technologically.
“The smartphone has become the eyes of our nation,”
says Charmine Davis, a Black psychotherapist and mother in Los Angeles.
She made an app called Just Us that lets people stopped by police
instantly start live-streaming while letting trusted contacts know about
their whereabouts. The idea, she says, is to help people remain calm
during encounters because they know their loved ones have been alerted.
The American Civil Liberties Union, too, offers an app
called Mobile Justice that offers guidance specific to many states and
lets you share video recordings with the organization’s lawyers.
“Knowing your rights is a different thing from knowing
how to keep yourself fully safe,” says Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior
staff technologist with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology
Project.
Choices you make in the moment about how to use your
phone could shape the outcome of the encounter. The experts largely
agreed that Frazier’s video was so effective because it told Floyd’s
story, rather than became part of it.
Here are five things you should know about how to most effectively - and safely - bear witness with your smartphone.
1. You have the right to film police
Recording officers performing their duties is
generally lawful, though details about the circumstances can vary from
state to state. Most police departments have a policy on this. Cops, who
may be wearing body cameras themselves, should be neutral to why you
are recording and may even be glad to have more proof of how everyone
acted.
But you may put yourself at risk of arrest or having
your phone seized if you encounter an officer who isn’t aware of your
rights . . . or doesn’t care.
“A good rule of thumb is if you have a legal right to
be present - such as on a public sidewalk or even on private property
where you have permission of the owner - then you can be there with your
camera,” says Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National
Press Photographers Association, who runs training programs for both
journalists and police.
Know there are some limits. You can’t disrupt police
doing their jobs. “The time, place and manner are important,” says Mike
Parker, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s commander who now trains
police. If you cross yellow tape, or get so close that you are putting
law enforcement or yourself in danger, an officer can ask you to step
back.
How far back is a matter of interpretation. If a cop
tells you to scram, “you can say, ‘It is my understanding I have every
right to record this. If you would like to direct me where to stand, I
will move,’” says Osterreicher. But in general, police cannot
legallytell you to stop recording entirely or destroy what you’ve saved.
Practically speaking, the best way to keep from having
a cop try to shut you down as a witness is just to maintain your
distance, like Frazier did during the Floyd arrest. She used the zoom
function on her phone, and her microphone was still able to pick up
Floyd’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe.
2. Do it in an obvious way
Don’t try to record covertly or hide away your camera, say the experts.
There’s some evidence that being clear that you’re
filming can actually help de-escalate a situation, which should be
everyone’s goal.
Being sneaky could run afoul of local laws, or put you
in danger if officers misinterpret your moves. In a tense situation,
police are going to be concerned for their own safety - and it’s
possible they could mistake your phone for a gun. “The more citizens
make officers feel uncomfortable, the more likely the situation will
become unstable,” says attorney and police practices and procedures
consultant Eric Daigle.
In the Floyd arrest, other cameras showed Frazier was
holding her smartphone out in front of her body. “She had it very high
and obvious so that the officers would know that she wasn’t doing
anything to threaten their safety,” says Richardson. You can even see
officer Chauvin looking directly into the camera.
Police may be particularly concerned about the
location and visibility of your hands. That’s why some of the more
advanced tools, including the Just Us app, can activate recording simply
with a voice command.
There’s even an iPhone Siri voice shortcut - “I’m
getting pulled over” - that can activate your phone’s camera without you
touching it. (You can download it here, but will need to adjust your
Siri Shortcut settings to install it.)
3. Record like a journalist
When you’re a witness, your job is to be a tripod. The
more your video looks like a true audiovisual version of what happened,
the more useful it will be as evidence.
Many professional journalists recommend filming
horizontally because it captures more of what’s happening on the ground
(and looks better on TVs). But if you do capture vertical video, which
is common in social media apps, try to fill up the frame with the
important action like Frazier did. Hold as still as possible, and if you
have to move, try to do so very slowly like you’re making a movie.
The more you film, the better. Part of the power of Frazier’s video is that it went on for so long.
When it comes to picking which app to use to record,
the best bet is the one that you’re comfortable operating even in a
stressful situation.
It can be very difficult to remain silent while
something terrible is happening in front of you, but it can also be
useful to think of yourself more as a detached observer than an
advocate.
“When you look at successful citizen recordings, what
do they have in common? They didn’t interfere,” says Parker. “I have
seen so many videos that otherwise would have been quite compelling but
the video became about the argument between the officer and the
citizen.”
4. Lock down your phone
If you film evidence of a crime, the police can ask
you for a copy of it. In certain circumstances, an officer might even
temporarily seize your phone and get a search warrant to go through it.
In a worst-case scenario, Osterreicher says, cops
could try to delete your video. They don’t have a right to do that
because of the First Amendment - not to mention ethical policing
standards - but some digital security steps you take in advance could
help protect your footage.
First, modern iPhones and Android phones offer
encryption, but the locks only work if you’ve got a passcode set up. A
secure one has more than four numbers in it. And since your face or
fingerprint could be used to unlock the phone, you might consider
turning off those functions if you know you’re heading toward a protest
or another situation you know will be tense, says the ACLU’s Gillmor.
There are also ways to make a copy of what you film
online in case your phone gets taken or lost. The simplest is cloud
backup: If you turn on a service such as iCloud Photos or Google Photos,
smartphones can automatically upload a copy of whatever you film
(though it may wait until you’re in the range of WiFi for a big file).
Streaming apps such as Facebook, which has a function
called live, both instantly broadcast what you record and keep a copy of
it for later. “Just remember, if you do that then you don’t have
control over the footage going forward,” says Gilmor. First, someone who
sees it can copy it. And second, if you decide to later delete or hide
your video, police could push any Internet company that had access to it
for a copy.
5. Think before you share
What helped Frazier’s video reignite a worldwide
reckoning on race is that she posted it on Facebook. It provided a
completely different version of what had happened to Floyd than what the
Minneapolis police had initially reported.
But before you post, the experts suggest thinking
through how you - and the person you’re trying to help - can stay in
control of the narrative.
For starters, Facebook is notoriously inconsistent
about what kinds of content it allows to stay up, or gets yanked for
violating its content standards.
And if you’re not a lawyer, you may not be able to see
how your video could be used to build a case against the person you
were trying to help.
“I would try to get in touch with the family first,”
says Richardson. Survivors, lawyers or a community organization will
have a read of the big picture and when and how it makes sense to
release the video - just like police already do in deciding when and how
to release bodycam footage.
It’s also about respect for the privacy of the people
involved. For survivors, video of someone being hurt or murdered can be
traumatizing. The family might be thankful for having the video to use
in court, but not want it on the open Internet as the final memory of a
loved one.
“Allow them to remain in control of the humanity of that person’s final moments,” says Richardson.
No
matter how big you paint "Black Lives Matter," a video is still worth
1,000 words. And by knowing how, you can help shape history.
