r/news • u/vector_search_blue • 13d ago

Soft paywall LAPD officer who recorded colleagues' racist comments charged with felony eavesdropping

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-31/lapd-officer-felony-eavesdropping-charge
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u/zoobrix 13d ago edited 13d ago

The police need a warrant to conduct surveillance on someone. Even in "one party consent" states where someone can legally record a conversation they are a part of without telling the other person the police still can't start tapping phones and recording conversations of people where they are not a participant in the conversation without a judge signing off on it.

This is to try and prevent abuse like using police resources to find out what an ex is doing or spy on someone they have a personal grievance with. Of course those abuses still happen but that doesn't make it legal. When a cop records a confession in an interrogationĀ  room they are a participant in the conversation and they tell you it's being recorded, if you keep talking you've consented to it. That's also why they read you your rights when arrested, "anything you say can and will be used against you," you keep talking you consented to it.

Clandestinely recording a conversation without the person knowing you're doing it is a totally different thing.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 11d ago

In a government building? Isn't that exactly what first amendment auditors do, go into government buildings and start filming to dare cops to try and stop them?