Fact check: Tucson, Arizona, ordinance doesn't make it illegal to film city police
The claim: Tucson City Council passed an ordinance making it illegal for citizens to film the Tucson police
Following Black Lives Matter demonstrations in multiple Arizona cities, a claim that the Tucson City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits people from filming the police has been making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.
The protests were sparked by the police killing of George Floyd and Dion Johnson, two Black men. Protests in Tucson were widespread, and on June 6 demonstrators briefly entered Interstate 10.
That same day, a Twitter user tweeted: “The Tucson City Council passed an ordinance making it illegal for citizens to film the Tucson police. I’m horrified. This needs national attention.”
The claim eventually appeared on Facebook, where a user posted a screenshot of the tweet with the caption “We need to sue Tucson. This is illegal.”
Rapper and actor Ice Cube made a statement about the ordinance on Twitter, too, calling on Tucson Mayor Regina Romero to “make sure it’s pro-people and not pro-law enforcement.”
What the ordinance does
The posts refer to Tucson Ordinance 11746, which the City Council and Romero approved April 21.
The order was intended to curb a nationwide trend where people, referred to as "First Amendment auditors" show up to crime scenes and create conflict to attract viewers on social media and earn financial rewards.
The Arizona Daily Star reported on the phenomenon. “In one instance locally, a man approached two officers, one of them female, as they guarded the perimeter of a crime scene," the Star reported. "When asked to move back, he launched an X-rated tirade, shouting ... obscenities for about 20 minutes as his camera rolled.”
The ordinance states that it “prohibits a person from entering a crime scene or investigation scene without permission of an officer; and prohibits a person from knowingly obstructing or hindering a police officer or Community Service Officer who is exercising his or her official duties.”
Violating the ordinance is a Class 2 misdemeanor and could result in a $750 fine.
The ordinance bars people from interfering with lawful police activity by entering police-restricted spaces by “using physical barriers, placing visual markers like caution tape, or expressly communicating that an area is temporarily restricted for police activity.” This includes crime scenes or spaces “immediately surrounding where police are working or investigating,” according to the Star.
The city’s website and the ordinance itself explicitly say that the order upholds “a person’s right to record police activities that take place in public,” as protected by the First Amendment, contrary to what many have suggested on social media.
“What these ordinances ... basically do is they let us set reasonable ... temporary boundaries around the area where police are conducting their official duties and to keep individuals from entering that area,” Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said in the April 21 council meeting. “They can still take videos of people from the outside.”
Magnus said all officers will have to complete training on the ordinance before they can enforce it. He also said many other Arizona cities have similar ordinances.
“We’re used to having the public around us on traffic stops and calls for service. Most of the time no boundary needs to be established ... But the issue is when they start interfering in what they’re doing and obstructing their work,” Magnus said.
Romero said June 8 on Twitter that there have not yet been any arrests or citations “made under this ordinance since it was adopted in April.”
Public criticism and further review
Even though the ordinance reiterates people’s right to film the police, community members and lawyers have criticized the ordinance as being too broad.
They argue the language is too vague and may deter the people from holding police officers accountable by allowing officers to enforce excessive perimeters that may impede on a person’s ability to record the police.
The ACLU of Arizona, in a letter to the mayor and City Council, said: “While the Tucson City Ordinance No. 11746 is problematic and raises constitutional questions, it’s important for the residents of Tucson to remember that they still have the right to record or photograph police carrying out their duties. We urge anyone who has been restricted from doing so to contact the ACLU of Arizona.”
Romero in a June 8 tweet called on the City Council to designate time during its June 9 meeting to review the ordinance, citing misinformation and feedback from the community as reasoning for the reconsideration.
“The fear that our black brothers and sisters feel during their interactions with law enforcement is very real,” Romero said in the Twitter post. “The ability to record members of our police department is a critical mechanism for public accountability, and in many instances, the only way injustices and abuses have been exposed across the country.”
Romero and the council on June 9 unanimously voted to invite public input on the ordinance, an element many say the council overlooked when the measure originally passed in April, and revisit it as an agenda item on June 23 to possibly add additional, clarifying language.
Romero said they may add language that the boundary restrictions not be arbitrary, but reasonable, and should not have the purpose of inhibiting video recording.
Our ruling: False
Although Tucson Ordinance 11746 has come under criticism for being too broad, it does not restrict people from filming the police, as explicitly stated in its language. We rate that claim as FALSE because it is not supported by our research.
Our fact-check sources:
- The Arizona Republic, “'We have a lot of unanswered questions': Dion Johnson's family calls for FBI, Department of Justice to investigate his death,” June 5, 2020
- Facebook post, June 6, 2020
- Tweet from Ice Cube, June 7, 2020
- The Arizona Republic, “Saturday police protests: Phoenix mayor attends for first time; Tucson crowd enters I-10,” June 6, 2020
- Ordinance No. 11746
- Tucson Daily Star, “Tucson creates new ordinance to deter aggressive 'First Amendment auditors,'” April 27, 2020
- Tucson Daily Star, “Amid backlash, Tucson City Council will review ordinance on recording police,” June 9, 2020
- City of Tucson, “Ordinance 11746 Information”
- City of Tucson Mayor and Council Meeting, April 21, 2020
- Tweet from Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, June 8, 2020
- City of Tucson Mayor and Council Meeting, June 9, 2020
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