Baltimore Cops Illegally Delete Cellphone Images: City to Settle for $250,000, Disputes Allegations

The city of Baltimore is set to approve a
settlement for $250,000 next week over a 2010 incident where
Baltimore cops confiscated Christopher Sharp’s cellphone and
deleted images from his phone, explaining to him that it was
illegal to videotape people in the state of Maryland. It’s not,
which is why the city government is ready to settle, with
taxpayers’ money, while not accepting legal responsibility.

CBS in Baltimore reports the details of the incident:

Christopher Sharp was recording an arrest at the
Preakness almost four years ago when officers got angry.

“Do me a favor and turn that off. It’s illegal to videotape a
person’s voice or anything else. It’s against the law in the state
of Maryland,” an officer told Sharp.

It’s not, and Sharp claims officers illegally confiscated his phone
and deleted other images from it, leading him to file suit with the
help of the ACLU.

“If this is happening to me, I can’t imagine what’s happening to
other people,” Sharp said.

Indeed. CBS reported that the ACLU didn’t want to speak ahead of
the actual settlement being approved, but the station did talk to
Carlos Miller, of the Photography is Not a Crime blog, an essential
resource on police misconduct and cameras. Miller told them these
kinds of cases usually don’t settle for more than $100,000. And why
would city officials in Baltimore, and other cities rife with
police abuse, try to pay for mistakes themselves, by accepting
responsibility and firing people, when they can make taxpayers do
it, apparently without fearing retribution at the polls?

Sharp and other Marylanders should consider themselves lucky in
at least this respect: other states, like Illinois,
consider the harmless and actually good-for-accountability act of
videotaping a police officer felony wiretapping.

Reason did a report
on the nationwide war on cameras in the January 2011 issue, and
you can watch the related Reason TV video below: