I kind of lost track here, so I don't know if the issue has been addressed in a posting where the sheriff made his comments on this. I'm smelling a law suit in the near future:
http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/...-can-be-recorded-after-uber-drivers-complaint
Sheriff, chief confirm police can be recorded after Uber driver’s complaint
Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said his department has launched an internal investigation into the matter and the conduct of the police sergeant at the call.
By F.T. Norton StarNews Staff
WILMINGTON --
After a traffic stop last month in which an Uber driver captured video of officers telling him it was illegal to film police, New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon and Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous issued statements Wednesday saying that information is incorrect.
Evangelous additionally said in his statement that his department has launched an internal investigation into the matter and the conduct of the police sergeant at the call. Evangelous did not identify the sergeant.
On Feb. 26, part-time Uber driver and criminal defense attorney Jesse Bright was stopped by police after leaving with a passenger from a house on Thrasher Court, Bright said. After removing the passenger from the car and searching him, the officers -- members of the Mobile Field Force, a joint operation between the WPD and sheriff's office -- turned their attention back to Bright, who was recording the incident on his cellphone, he said.
“The police said they were going to search my vehicle, to which I refused,” Bright wrote in a message to the StarNews. “One of the officers told me that it was against the law to film the police, and told me to stop recording. When I refused, he came to my side of the vehicle and ordered me to get out, because he was taking me to jail for filming the police. I refused, and locked the door.”
Bright said the Wilmington Police Department officer attempted to open the door and then told Bright he “better hope they don’t find anything in his car.”
“At that time he stepped away and asked dispatch to send a K-9 unit. When he did that, I asked the New Hanover Sheriff’s (deputy) that was standing there if there was really a law against filming the police, and he confirmed that it was illegal to film the police and said it was recently passed," Bright wrote.
Eventually, Bright said, he and his vehicle were searched under his protests -- all of which he captured in three videos of the incident. Nothing was found and neither Bright nor his passenger were arrested.