The person the officer is interacting with might be concerned in a very different way about what they say to a police officer, vs what they say to a police officer while a random or perhaps not random at all third party is recording. 8 ft seems like a reasonable cutoff.
But something needs to be done about the abuse potential of another officer walking towards the recording person, repeating "eight foot rule! eight foot rule!" to continuously push back the recording person so that their colleagues can proceed unwatched.
But something needs to be done about the abuse potential of another officer walking towards the recording person, repeating "eight foot rule! eight foot rule!" to continuously push back the recording person so that their colleagues can proceed unwatched.