$40,000 Awarded to Man Who Had Photos Deleted by Police

A man in Atlanta was just awarded $40,000 in damages after having his cell phone confiscated and photos deleted while filming police activity from a public location. The man was filming for Copwatch, an organization that aims to crack down on law enforcement wrongdoing by filming their activities, and was told by the police that he had no right to record them. An interesting quote from the CNN segment above is the lesson this case should send to other police departments,

The lesson is that police departments need to know that citizens can film their activity if it is taking place in a public place.

Not a bad result for having some cell phone photos deleted, huh?