Cantons oppose moves to ban citizen filming of police arrests

Restraining people can be part of police work. Some police feel citizen filming of arrests can misrepresent them. Keystone / Carlo Reguzzi

Swiss cantons have come out against the idea of a general ban on public filming of police work, which some forces want.

Police say they are being misrepresented by filming of arrests by members of the public. Some voices, notably Basel city police, are calling for restrictions on video content being made public. There are also moves within the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to bring the idea to parliament.

+ Read why Basel police want a ban on citizen-filming of their work

But cantonal police commanders see things differently, reports Swiss public broadcaster SRFExternal link. “We are of the opinion that a general ban on filming or photographing the police on duty is not feasible and not conceivable in a liberal constitutional state,” Adrian Gaugler, spokesman for the Conference of Cantonal Police Commanders, told SRF on Thursday. “The police do not have to hide when they do their work in public.”

The Conference of Cantonal Justice and Police Directors also rejects a ban on filming. “The police have a monopoly on the use of force in public spaces and should be subject to a certain degree of control by the population,” says co-president Karin Kayser-Fritschi. “A general ban could also damage the image and credibility of police work.”

Both the cantonal police commanders and the police directors see body cams for the police as a way of obtaining accurate facts about operations. The police corps of several cantons are planning to introduce such cameras.

Police around the world are increasingly being filmed by smartphones and other devices during arrests or when performing crowd control. In some countries, video evidence has led to civil unrest and action being taken against officers. However, there are complaints among police that some video clips are edited to highlight force being used by police, while important contextual information can be left out.