Is it legal to video police and other first responders in Florida? It may get tough in 2025

As of 2025, it may become harder to take videos of law enforcement in Florida, even if they’re breaking the law themselves.

A new law going into effect on Jan. 1 requires people to move back 25 feet if first responders, including law enforcement, verbally warn them to, while the responder is performing a legal duty. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis said this was in support of law enforcement officers and accused news media outlets of warping narratives about police for attention and “clicks.” 

Critics say it’s to prevent people from taking videos of law enforcement officers breaking the law or brutalizing people.

Here’s what to know.

What does SB 184, Impeding, Threatening, or Harassing First Responders, do?

SB 184 makes it illegal, after you have been verbally warned, to approach a first responder or remain within 25 feet while the responder is performing a legal duty with the intent to:

• Block or interfere with their ability to perform the duty
• Threaten the first responders with physical harm
• Harass the first responder

Violations will be a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail.

What does SB 184 define as ‘harassment’?

“Harassment” is defined as an action directed at a first responder that “intentionally causes substantial emotional distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose.”

“Emotional distress,” “legitimate purpose” and which parties may decide if they apply were left undefined.

Rep. Angela Nixon, D-Jacksonville, introduced an amendment to clarify that “harass” did not include “asking a first responder questions out of concern, for the health, safety and well-being, of the person that is being responded to” and to stress that a person may still impede a first responder if they are breaking the law or using “unnecessary harm or excessive force.” The amendment failed.

What does SB 184 define as ‘first responders’?

First responders are defined here as law enforcement officers, correctional probation officers, firefighters and emergency medical care providers.

Are you allowed to record or video police officers in Florida?

Yes. SB 184 does not prevent taking video or pictures of law enforcement in the course of their duties, but it does require you, if asked, to move 25 feet away, which can make shooting images or video much more difficult.

An amendment from Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee, which would have defined “the peaceful audio or video recording, photographing, or eyewitness observing of a first responder” as a legitimate purpose, failed to pass.

So did Nixon’s other proposed amendment to change the name of the bill to “The I Don’t Want the World to See the Police Kill an Unarmed Innocent Man Like George Floyd Again, So I Want To Protect Bad Cops and Violate Free Speech Act.”

How did police videos cause the Black Lives Matter protest movement to go worldwide?

Davis’ amendment referred to the video shot of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a police officer in 2020.

The video, and many others shot by bystanders and witnesses, were widely shared online and contributed to the massive widespread Black Lives Matter protests that year by making more Americans aware of incidents of police brutality that otherwise may have gone unnoticed. 

Darnella Frazier, the then-17-year-old girl who videoed Floyd’s murder, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.

Why was SB 184 necessary?

DeSantis said when he signed the bill that the legislation “recognizes we’ve got some strange currents going on in our society right now that really seek to delegitimize law enforcement,” accusing news media outlets of warping narratives about police for attention and “clicks” and citing media coverage of the controversial police killing of Dexter Reed in Chicago.

Officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed during a traffic stop, reportedly over Reed not wearing a seatbelt. A citizen review board questioned both the validity of the stop and the order of events — they say it’s unclear who shot first — and questioned the appropriateness of deadly force in the response. Bodycam footage showed one officer emptying his pistol multiple times at Reed, even after Reed was motionless on the ground.

“You shouldn’t be in a situation where you’re at a traffic stop, you’re responding to a call of someone in distress, and then you have people come trying to interdict or trying to harass you from performing your duty,” DeSantis said. “We view that as a problem, and now you’re going to be held accountable.”

Critics questioned the bill, saying it would be open to First Amendment challenges and prevent recordings of police misconduct and brutality.