Camera crime: Bogus Boston bust.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings

SIMON GLIK was strolling across the Boston Common in October 2007 when he saw two police officers arresting a man suspected of selling drugs. Believing the officers were using excessive force, Glik took out his cell phone to document the incident, whereupon the cops decided to arrest him too--for wiretapping and aiding the escape of a prisoner. In January, after defending that decision for more than four years, the Boston Police Department finally admitted the cops made a bad call.

In between, Glik, a Boston immigration attorney, filed a complaint with the police department's Internal Affairs Division, which concluded that he "did not articulate a violation of law or the department's rules and regulations by an officer" and told him "the proper forum for this matter was with the courts." Glik took that advice, filing a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers, Sgt. Detective John Cunniffe and Officer Peter Savalis.

Last August the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruled that Cunniffe and Savalis had violated Glik's constitutional rights. The court said "a citizen's right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the...