Yes, You Have the Right to Record the Police: Analysis

On May 8, Maria Melendez, Melendez’s daughter, Melissa Quair, and Quair’s boyfriend reportedly witnessed about a half-dozen Kern County, Calif., highway patrol officers beating and kicking 33-year old David Silva in front of Kern Medical Center. Silva, the father of four young children, died early on the morning of May 8, presumably from the injuries he sustained from the incident.

Melendez recorded the entire episode on her phone, as did her daughter’s boyfriend. But before she could send the videos to news media outlets, she later told reporters, detectives from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, acting without a warrant, confiscated their cellphones. According to Quair, detectives arrived at her house at 3:00 am and demanded that Quair and her boyfriend turn over their cellphones. Quair’s boyfriend reportedly turned over his phone to authorities without asking them to produce a search warrant because “he had to be at work at 8 am and didn’t want to be late,” according to the Bakersfield Calfornian. Melendez said sheriff’s detectives confiscated her phone later that same day.

While some facts surrounding the case remain unknown, it appears that the witnesses who recorded the Silva incident acted lawfully, and—absent a valid warrant—the law enforcement officials had no right to seize their property. And on May 14, the FBI launched an investigation amid questions over whether officials tampered with the cellphone videos confiscated from the witnesses.

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