Law & Crime reports..
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon obtained an injunction on Thursday against the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) which prohibits those government agencies from collecting or maintaining protest footage.
“The gist is that the City and PPB are enjoined from collecting or maintaining recordings of demonstrators not engaged in criminal activity,” noted attorney Alan Kessler, who worked on the case.
Filed on behalf of an unnamed Protester #1, Kessler described the temporary restraining order (TRO) as a legal victory “striking” a “blow against PPB surveillance.”
Per the terms of the order:
The City and its employees, agents, and all others acting in concert with it or on its behalf, including but not limited to the Portland Police Bureau, are temporarily enjoined from collecting or maintaining audio or video of protestors demonstrating in public spaces, except where the video or audio relates to an investigation of criminal activities and there exist reasonable grounds to suspect the subjects of the videos are involved in criminal conduct.
The final phrase provides a potential caveat for law enforcement and city officials to continue recording protesters and retaining copies of such recordings. While critics of the PPB and the city government are likely to view that caveat as providing ample pretext for largely evading the terms of the order, the order itself originally purports to limit the impact of the “criminal conduct” caveat.
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