> I don't really have an opinion as to whether it's ethical or not ethical to video a traffic stop. It does kind of sound like lighting a match when soaked in gasoline though.

What? Under what possible interpretation of ethics might it not be ethical to video tape a public official interacting with a citizen? This just doesn't even make sense as a sentence to me. Segmentation fault (core dumped)

I could see it not being ethical if a person is being provocative. If it's just a dash-mounted camera or one pinned to the person's body (like a cops) that seems perfectly ethical.

Then the provocative behavior is potentially unethical, not the recording? Seems like a very important distinction to make.

Yeah, could be, though I think the two in combination probably makes for a force multiplier.

I don’t see that as relevant to my points. My main point is that an officer can easily abuse this law due to asymmetric information/outcome despite the limits in the text. The officers that would do this are exactly the ones that need to be recorded.

True, sorry I didn't get to that point. That point is nothing new about police. Ever seen cops stack charges on someone? They write a long list of micro-grievances that you have committed and make you answer for them individually. The system rests on this idea that no one is harmed by charging someone with a crime, and that it is a DAs job to determine whether or not a crime has been committed.

The reality is that DAs rarely drop charges when they should (or don't enough, take your pick) and merely charging someone with a crime has lots of legal and extra-legal consequences. It's a shit system, imo, but depending on the situation people are in they either love or hate this system. If you are an agrieved party, then you likely like this system because it's laced for vengeance and action, while if you're trying to make a case that you didn't violate the law or even know that something was a law it's like walking uphill in a foot of mud.