You make an excellent point, but I don't think that's what's going on here. This reminds me more of the ATM technician who overreacted to someone taking a photograph with their phone of the machine being refilled. The man was temporarily arrested and had his phone confiscated, and was treated very rudely, when in actual fact, technical schematics are available online from the ATM's manufacturer.

It's just people being power-hungry, that's all. I understand that police are concerned about their own privacy and safety, but the major reasoning behind much of the Bill of Rights was to prevent the police (and government in general) from feeling comfortable stepping outside their bounds. People in both situations claimed the cops were being overly violent - so what evidence could anyone bring against the police now?