Montana Cop Falsely Tells Citizen it is Illegal to Record him in Public

by Carlos Miller
PINAC
Mar. 27, 2015



A Montana cop insisted it was illegal to video record him in public, even going as far as to cite a code in the Montana Code Annotated, which lists the state’s criminal offenses as well as other legal provisions.

However, the Dillon police officer told the citizen that he was violating Code 45,  a very broad criminal code that includes several contempt of cop charges as well as more serious crimes, not to mention crimes committed by public servants.

Upon further review of Code 45, we can assume he was referring to Code 45-8-213, titled the “Privacy in Communications,” which is Montana’s wiretapping law, which only makes it a crime if the recording was done with a hidden device or without warning.

The fact that the man in the video was openly recording, which is why the cop noticed he was being recorded, even in complete darkness, is enough evidence to show no law was broken.

In fact, if anybody was violating Code 45, it was the cop. Specifically, 45-7-401 (1) (c), the “official misconduct” code, which states the following:
(1) A public servant commits the offense of official misconduct when in an official capacity the public servant commits any of the following acts: (c) with the purpose to obtain a personal advantage or an advantage for another, performs an act in excess of the public servant’s lawful authority;
After all, it was obvious the cop was using his authority as a cop to intimidate the citizen into complying with an unlawful order.

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