(BIVN) – A new bill has been introduced in the Hawaiʻi State Legislature that would ensure the public has the right to record law enforcement activities.

Senate Bill 307 has already gotten a positive recommendation from the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs following a Monday hearing.

According to the language of the bill:

A person neither under arrest nor in the custody of a law enforcement officer shall have the right to record law enforcement activity and to maintain custody and control of that recording and of any property or instruments used by that person to record law enforcement activities; provided that a person under arrest or in custody of a law enforcement officer does not, by that status alone, forfeit the right to have any recordings taken before the arrest or before being taken into custody or the right to have any property and equipment used for the recording to be maintained and returned to that person. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to permit a person to engage in actions that physically interfere with law enforcement activity or otherwise constitute a crime under chapter 710.

The bill also proposes anyone subject to unlawful interference with recording law enforcement activities can take matters to court in search of punitive damages, declaratory and injunctive relief, or other remedies as a court may deem appropriate.

The bill has the support of several individuals and organizations, including the Big Island Press Club. Press club president Tiffany Edwards Hunt stated in written testimony:

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the public the right to free speech as well as freedom of the press, which serves as a watchdog for the public. That includes the right to record the actions of law enforcement via photographs, video, audio recordings, as long as those media functions are performed without interference with the performance by law enforcement officers of their duties — including the recording of pursuit and apprehension of suspects, traffic enforcement, arrests, and use of force by officers, including the discharge of weapons, both lethal and non-lethal.

The electronic and technological boom of the past few decades has provided the average citizen with recording tools, now commonplace, that were in the past almost exclusively the province of the media and entertainment industries. The recording of law enforcement activities, especially in public, is now something done routinely by average residents not employed by a media outlet, under a wide array of circumstances.

Police are public servants and are paid by the public. As such, their actions, under the color of law, are subject to the public scrutiny of public recordings guaranteed by the First Amendment, as well as the Ninth Amendment as a non-enumerated right retained by the people. While the press has traditionally acted as a public watchdog, members of the general public also have the right to be their own watchdogs, including the recording of the actions of law enforcement officers, as long as the recording doesn’t interfere with officers performing their duties.

A House companion bill, HB595, will be heard today in the House Committee on Labor.