Unless I am really misunderstanding the rulings on this subject, though, I believe that if you're residing in CA (or another two party consent state) you do have the ability to refuse being recorded even when executing your public duty.
Police officers get a number of special treatments that empower them with more and less rights in certain settings due to the specific nature of their job.
Re:RateOurCops – Like Yelp, but for Cops
by throwaway_egbs on Friday July 02, 2021 @06:29PM
(#27717713)
You can record on-duty police officers in California without their permission.
https://www.jmllaw.com/blog/keep-mind-9-rules-of-filming-pol...
https://www.solutionlawapc.com/criminal-defense/the-right-to...
https://www.vjamesdesimonelaw.com/can-you-film-police-when-s...
There was even a bill passed in 2015 (still in effect) that affirmatively declared a right to record: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...
That's correct - but I don't believe other public officials similarly lack the right to privacy even while operating in their official capacity.
Re:RateOurCops – Like Yelp, but for Cops
by filoeleven on Saturday July 03, 2021 @11:01AM
(#27722029)
If they are in a public building with public access, so not in a restricted area, then recordings can be made. CA does have additional protections even in public concerning “confidential communications” which likely prohibit covert recording.
“...police have not proven themselves to be statistically worth the ‘right to privacy’.”
Your comment is extremely poorly worded with the recent and historical explosion of derision against black people, etc.
Very poor choice of words. :(
Re:RateOurCops – Like Yelp, but for Cops
by throwaway_egbs on Friday July 02, 2021 @09:25PM
(#27718597)
Ah, I see what you were saying now. It was a little confusing for me in the context of a discussion about police.
As a non-elected “regular folk” kind of person working for a state government (not city, but Constitutionally there is no distinction) a lot of my employment information that would not be public (and that both I and my employer might seek to protect, or different reasons, from the public were I privately employed) is public. Not just in a theoretic sense, but actually hosted and searchable by anyone in the world in numerous databases compiled by media organizations of public data.
Working for the government, outside of where the fact or nature of that employment is itself, say, classified information, is very much a “public” thing.