POSTED: Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 6:34pm
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 - 12:23pm
EL PASO - A man took video with his cell phone camera after he says he saw police pull over a car and get confrontational with the driver. That's when the officers turned their attention to him.
Jesus Lopez-Ledesma says, soon after he started recording, an officer told him to stop. When Lopez-Ledesma asked officers why they wanted him to stop recording they gave him more than one reason. First they said it was for the safety of an undercover officer, and then they said it was for the privacy of the driver they pulled over.
"Well she's in public. How can she have privacy rights if she's in public? {the officer} said I'm going to give her your driver's license information {to the driver} so she can file a lawsuit against you," Lopez-Ledesma said.
On top of that, Lopez-Ledesma's supervisor was called out even though he was not doing anything wrong. Now he's worried for his job.
"It's coercions through intimidation. I didn't break the law," Lopez-Ledesma said.
"I'm sure there's several different ways this could have been approached," El Paso Police Spokesman Darrel Petry said.
Petry says Lopez-Ledesma's information was never given to the driver they pulled over, and after he watched the video he said the officers were not intimidating Lopez-Ledesma. That's despite the fact you can hear officers say things like, " I'm sure your licensing, your job, depends on your cooperation with the El Paso Police Department," and, "We know who you are."
"There's no reason for me, as a professional, to have my livelihood threatened, and I sort of feel obligated to keep recording and to make sure the El Paso police officers know that they're being watched and they're expected to behave in a professional manner," Lopez-Ledesma said.
Lopez-Ledesma has written a letter to several city councilors and the mayor to tell them what happened.
Spokesman Darrel Petry did admit that citizens have the right to film in public places, but he maintained that officers did nothing wrong.
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