Legal Guarantees for Police Officers when Citizens Take Photos and Videos of their Official Activities

Khilyuk Sof'ya Olegovna PhD in Pedagogy Senior Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Psychology and Humanities, Ural Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 623702, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Berezovsky, Stroitelei st., 9, office 1 S_Khilyuk@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Abrosimova Polina Andreevna Chief Specialist in Information and Public Relations, Ural Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 66 Korepina str., office 1, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, 620057, Russia polina.abrosimova.180@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Previously published in Russian in the journal Police Activity https://nbpublish.com/pdmag/

Modern scientific and technical advancements have affected not only the improvement of social networks, which greatly simplify the life of a modern person but also new technologies that allow us to share photos and videos, as well as devices for their active use. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, mobile phones only allowed telephone communication. However, today, their functionality allows you to quickly and efficiently carry out photo and video sharing.

The technical capabilities of mobile phones allow citizens to shoot high-quality stories for entertainment and record their own or other people's actions to further provide them as an evidence base. However, citizens often use the footage not only to protect themselves but also for public discussion and condemnation. On the one hand, modern technologies simplify people's lives, including facilitating the performance of professional tasks; on the other hand, they sometimes violate the private rights of citizens and the video materials with which they are made public.

The positive side of technical photo-video progress is also noted in the activities of employees of internal affairs bodies. For example, the logistical support of local police officers' activities includes an official mobile phone equipped with a camera for photo and video documentation, and the equipment used in highway patrol inspectors’ cars includes video cameras from the car interior. However, it must be borne in mind that technical means can be employed by unscrupulous citizens against the identity of employees of internal affairs bodies. To resolve the ambiguity in the field of legality and the procedure for using technical means for photo and video shooting, we will consider the legal grounds for its conduct.

To resolve controversial issues about the admissibility of photo and video footage of police officers and their official activities, several legal documents have been developed to help clarify various situations between police officers and citizens capturing the footage.

In accordance with Part 4 of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Russian citizens have the right to freely receive and disseminate information in a legal manner—which, on the one hand, allows filming police officers’ official activities of ^[4]. In the same normative legal act, in accordance with part 1 of Article 23, a citizen's right to inviolability of private life, family or personal secrets, protection of their honor and good name is enshrined, which in turn does not allow the dissemination of a person’s personal data in the media of their image without consent ^[4].

Employees of the internal affairs bodies are primarily citizens of the Russian Federation, and their rights are protected based on Article 152.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which guarantees the protection of a citizen's image. In accordance with this article, the publication of an image of a citizen may also be carried out only with their consent, except in cases provided for in this article ^[2]. Such cases, for example, include implementing photo and video fixation in public places in the interests of public and state organizations. If the purpose of the photo-video fixation is the image of a particular citizen, then their permission to publish this material in the media is mandatory. In case of violations of the right to protect the image of a citizen, they can go to court.

Permission to conduct photo and video recordings of law enforcement officers is enshrined in Article 8 of Federal Law No. 3 of February 7, 2011, "On the Police," which states that police activities are open to the public to the extent that it does not contradict the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on criminal proceedings, on proceedings in cases on administrative offenses, on operational investigative activities, on the protection of state and other legally protected secrets, and also does not violate the rights of citizens ^[8]. Therefore, the interaction of police officers, the media, as well as citizens capturing the footage cannot be avoided.

However, in law enforcement agencies, there are restrictions on the disclosure of information, which is provided for by normative legal documents on the protection of information about bodies engaged in operational investigative activities, the protection of state secrets, or legally protected secrets ^[9].

It should be noted that Internet blogs are currently actively developing, where, to achieve a high number of views, creators use provocative methods against police officers. Such methods include intentional violations of traffic rules or hooligan behavior in public places in the presence of law enforcement officers. This attracts the attention of the police and contributes to the emergence of further dialogue, in which bloggers stimulate the emergence of conflict situations. Such dialogues often include provocative questions of a political nature or specific questions about the content of regulatory documents. Unfortunately, not all police officers are psychologically prepared for such situations, which leads to online videos ridiculing the actions of police officers, highlighting the activities of law enforcement agencies in an unworthy light, as well as discrediting the honor and dignity of the police. The distribution of such videos negatively affects the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation’s image, which significantly complicates the interaction of police officers with citizens and various organizations, undermines trust in police officers, and hinders quality work. That is why, in addition to the legislative framework governing the rules and procedure for video filming within the framework of official police activities, law enforcement officers should be able to communicate competently and tactfully with media representatives.

Police officers have legally established requirements for communicating with citizens. Analyzing the regulatory and legal documentation allowed us to identify several documents explaining the requirements for police officers' professional communication with various categories of citizens. For example, Articles 5 and 7 of the Federal Law "On Police" state that a police officer must show citizens respect, introduce themself and inform citizens about their legitimate intentions, and ensure the confidentiality of citizens and the information of the person who has contacted them ^[8].

Article 13 of the Federal Law "On Service in the Internal Affairs Bodies of the Russian Federation and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" No. 342 – FZ also clarifies the requirements for communication between police officers and citizens. A police officer must show respect, politeness, and tact toward citizens; prevent public statements, judgments, and assessments, including in the media; show respect for national customs and traditions in communication; take into account cultural and other characteristics of various ethnic and social groups to avoid conflict situations ^[10].

Paragraph 7.2 of the Code of Ethics for Official Conduct of Employees of the Internal Affairs Bodies of the Russian Federation states that police officers should not use obscene language, jargon, or offensive expressions in their speech; paragraphs 8.5 and 8.6 indicate that police officers are prohibited from provoking conflict or taking part in it, as well as from humiliating human dignity ^[6,13].

L.Yu. Nezhkina, N.S. Fontalova, V.A. Urakaeva, Yu.V. Ivanova, O.A. Dudkina, E.F. Gazizov, and O.I. Ermolaev studied the peculiarities of police officers' professional communication.

L.Yu. Nezhkina and N.S. Fontalova note that one of the important aspects of communication between a police officer and citizens is the ability to establish psychological contact that ensures trustful and conflict-free communication. This is a very important skill, especially if citizens video record police officers' actions ^[5].

V.A. Urkaeva provides a legal analysis of the actions of police officers who prevent the lawful filming of their official activities and notes that the illegal obstruction of filming by a police officer can be qualified under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation exactly as well as the removal by a police officer of photographs or video materials from a memory card of a seized camera or video camera. Except in cases provided for by law, for example, if digital files seized by a police officer are counterfeit ^{[7, pp. 63–66]}.

Yu.V. Ivanova and O.A. Dudkina, considering the specifics of the activities of police officers, note that society places increased demands on the performance of their official duties. For example, patrol cars must be parked in accordance with parking rules. However, citizens who record a violation do not take into account another regulatory legal document that provides police officers with the right to non-compliance with traffic rules—this is Part 3 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 10/23/1993 No. 1090 "On Traffic Rules." Therefore, in any controversial situation, a police officer should explain the legality of their actions in a calm and confident tone ^{[3, pp. 18–22]}.

E.F. Gazizov and O.I. Ermolaev conclude that the protection of the rights of a citizen with the status of a police officer in a modern legal society should be ensured on an equal basis with the protection of the rights of civil society representatives. Therefore, it is necessary to create a balance of interests between the two parties (citizens and police officers) in law enforcement practice, which will ensure the equality of all before the law ^[1].

For employees of internal affairs bodies to be ready to interact with the media, it is necessary to develop their professional communication competence and psychological skills at the stage of professional formation, namely during the period of study in educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

L.Yu. Nezhkina and N.S. Fontalova note that to hone communication skills within the framework of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, it is necessary to organize psychological and pedagogical conditions, which include conducting communication training, workshops on the psychology of communication, seminars, scientific, practical and representative events ^[5].

In accordance with the requirements of normative legal documents regulating the activities of the police, the specifics of interaction with citizens, as well as with the media, the Federal State Educational Standards for the specialties 40.05.02 "Law Enforcement" and 40.05.01 "Legal provision of national security" contain a general professional competence (OK-7), according to which a police officer must be capable of logical thinking, argumentatively and clearly building oral and written speech, and conducting polemics and discussions ^[11,12]. In addition, the Federal State Educational Standard for the specialty 40.05.02 "Law Enforcement" contains professional competence (PK-26), according to which a police officer must be able to carry out their professional activities in cooperation with law enforcement officers, state bodies representatives, local governments, public associations, municipal public order authorities, and citizens, with the media. To form these competencies in future police officers, a new discipline, "Technologies of effective communication of employees of internal Affairs bodies with the public," is being introduced in Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs’ educational organizations.

The purpose of studying the discipline "Technologies of effective communication of employees of internal affairs bodies with the public" is to form students' stable knowledge about organizational, substantive, and legal aspects of the activities of internal affairs units in interaction with civil society institutions and the media, skills of interaction with representatives of civil society and the media, understanding the technology of press services in the internal affairs bodies. In addition, the study of this discipline allows future police officers to provide a system of knowledge about the nature of communications and public relations, to acquaint them with the specifics of the information policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, to develop communication skills, creative thinking, to teach and clearly represent the role of the media and civil society institutions in shaping public opinion about the activities of law enforcement agencies.

To train future graduates, I interact with the media. The chief specialist in the field of information and public relations organized a freelance press center for cadets of the federal state educational institution of higher education "Ural Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia," which is an additional source of practical activity for future employees of internal affairs bodies in the field of communication with the population. The main tasks of the press center include the formation of basic competencies among students, as well as professional skills of interaction with representatives of civil society institutions and the media and the formation of an objective public opinion about the activities of internal affairs bodies, ensuring public confidence in the activities of police officers. The participants of the press center carry out their activities on an equal basis with journalists at the above-mentioned events, but already from the educational organization. It is worth noting that an effective skill for a future police officer is stress tolerance when dealing with a large number of journalists, as it happens at press conferences dedicated to large-scale, high-profile, and socially significant information events.

This press center includes students, the teaching staff of the Institute, as well as the chief specialist of the information and public relations department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Cadets from the press center take photos and videos both on the territory of the educational organization and outside it to create and post regular news releases about the life and events of the URUI of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the official accounts of the Institute on social networks, as well as information posts and videos.

In their videos, the cadets highlight the educational, official, and professional activities of police officers, which creates a positive image of an employee of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation in the audience. The implementation of the filming process is carried out thanks to the necessary equipment, namely a video camera and a microphone, as well as an information occasion, which is covered in the plots of news releases. Students in the freelance press center of the URUI of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia broadcast in news programs events and events related to the activities of the institute, its guests, achievements of permanent and variable staff, events held, as well as significant events.

As optional classes, training sessions in the format of a press conference are held with students of the press center. The purpose of such classes is to develop skills and skills of interaction with the media. The trainings are conducted by the teaching staff of the Ural Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications of the University of Humanities.

This allows you to solve the following tasks:

- to develop skills of adaptation to situational moments of interviewing, which may arise in real-time,

- to develop the skills of rapid response and decision-making on both sides of the conversation,

- to develop logical thinking and argumentation, clarity in the construction of oral and written speech.

Consequently, by showing initiative and creative activity and participating in socially significant events at the city level, students of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia form their own experiences for further interaction with citizens.

Every year, in the center of Yekaterinburg, the Department of Constitutional Law organizes a field event to survey the civilian population on their knowledge of the content of the Russian Federation's Constitution. For poorly educated citizens, students of the institute talk about their rights and obligations and present the Russian Federation's Constitution to them. Such events allow students to develop the skills of friendly and conflict-free communication with citizens.

As part of their interaction with the media, the Ural Law Institute cadets regularly communicate with journalists from regional state TV channels in Russia. Cadets practice such communication by answering questions posed by media representatives. This practice is organized during large-scale institute events, such as the swearing-in ceremony of an employee of the internal affairs bodies, the graduation of young specialists, an open day, etc.

Thus, it should be noted that police officers' interaction with media representatives in the framework of their official duties cannot be avoided. Therefore, each employee should be aware of citizens' rights, the rules for photo and video shooting, and the procedure for the lawful use of footage containing photo and video information about any citizen. In addition, every police officer should have well-formed knowledge and skills in effective communication with the media. This will allow law enforcement officers to always represent themselves and the Ministry of Internal Affairs adequately in the eyes of the public.