A federal judge ordered the NYPD Thursday to stop enforcing a policy that prohibits people from recording inside of police precincts while a lawsuit challenging the rule is underway.
SeanPaul Reyes, a social media personality and constitutional activist from Long Island who films himself in police stations and other government buildings across the country to assert his right to do so, sued the NYPD earlier this year after police arrested him twice for filming in the 61st and 75th precincts in Brooklyn. Reyes argued that the ban on filming violates a city law that protects New Yorkers’ right to tape police, as well as the U.S. Constitution.
The NYPD referred WNYC to the city law department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the department has told Gothamist in the past that it implemented the recording ban in 2018 to protect the privacy of people who interact with the criminal justice system, such as victims, witnesses and confidential informants. According to court records, the department has also argued that filming in precinct lobbies could compromise the integrity of ongoing investigations and endanger officers.
U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke wrote that Reyes is not likely to prove that the policy violates the First Amendment, because other courts have ruled that certain government spaces can limit free speech activity for specific reasons, such as to protect safety and privacy.
But she ruled that his lawsuit is still likely to succeed because of the Right to Record Act, which the City Council approved in 2020 as a rebuke to the NYPD’s ban on filming in precinct houses. The city law goes even further than the First Amendment, codifying the right to tape police as long as the person does not physically interfere with law enforcement or break the law.
Reyes, known as the Long Island Audit on social media, has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and followers on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. He typically records videos on his…
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