Filming the Police in Public: UK Law Explained

There is no law in the UK preventing you from photographing or filming in a public place, including filming police officers performing their duties, and official guidance confirms officers have no power to stop you filming or to make you delete footage. The recognised limits are obstruction, breach of the peace, harassment, and the narrow misuse of counter-terrorism powers.

For the wider one-party-consent framework on recording calls and conversations, see the UK recording laws overview.

Is filming the police in public legal in the UK?

Yes. There is no statute in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland that creates an offence of photographing or filming in a public place, and none that makes it unlawful to film a police officer performing their duties. The right reflects the freedom to receive and impart information under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, given effect by the Human Rights Act 1998. The College of Policing, which sets Authorised Professional Practice (APP) for forces in England and Wales, states that police have no power to stop the filming or photographing of incidents or police personnel, and that members of the public should not be prevented from doing so from a public place. The Home Office stop and search Code of Practice says the same about filming incidents and police personnel, and confirms that officers have no legal power to delete images or destroy film. Filming is therefore lawful as a starting point, and any restriction has to come from a specific legal power applied to your conduct rather than to the act of recording.

Watch out: "Lawful" describes the act of filming, not everything you might do while filming. The limits below all turn on behaviour, location, or purpose, not on the camera itself.

Obstruction, breach of the peace, and your conduct

The most common practical limit is obstruction. In England and Wales, under section 89(2) of the Police Act 1996, a person who resists or wilfully obstructs a constable in the execution of their duty commits a summary offence punishable by up to one month imprisonment and a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale. Filming from a reasonable distance is not obstruction; physically getting in an officer's way, ignoring a lawful instruction to move back from a cordon, or interfering with an arrest can be. Section 89(1) separately makes assaulting a constable in the execution of their duty an offence carrying up to six months and a level 5 fine. Section 89 applies in England and Wales only. Scotland has its own offences of assaulting, or resisting, obstructing or hindering, a constable under section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, and Northern Ireland uses section 66 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998, each with its own penalties. Officers also retain a common law power to take steps to prevent a breach of the peace, which courts have held requires a real and imminent threat. These powers let an officer manage a scene; they do not give a general power to order someone to stop recording. Where an instruction is given, the lawful question is whether your continued filming genuinely obstructs the officer, not whether the officer would prefer not to be filmed.

Counter-terrorism powers and the photography myth

Counter-terrorism legislation is frequently misunderstood as banning photography of police or sensitive sites. It does not. The Home Office Code of Practice for the exercise of stop and search powers states that it is important that police officers do not automatically consider photography or filming as suspicious behaviour. Two distinct powers are sometimes invoked. Section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 lets a constable stop and search a person whom they reasonably suspect to be a terrorist, to find evidence the person is a terrorist; mere photography is not reasonable suspicion. Section 47A applies only inside an area specifically authorised because of a terrorism threat, and even then the Code is explicit that an authorisation itself does not prohibit the taking of photographs or digital images. Crucially, the Code confirms officers do not have a legal power to delete images or destroy film, and that cameras and devices should be left in the state they were found. In such a search, film and memory cards may be seized where the officer reasonably suspects they are evidence that the person is a terrorist or that a vehicle is being used for the purposes of terrorism.

Watch out: Section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000 makes it an offence to elicit, publish, or communicate information about a constable that is likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The offence carries up to 15 years on indictment, but it requires that terrorism nexus and provides a defence of reasonable excuse. Ordinary filming or photography of officers, including for journalism or accountability, falls outside it.

Public highway versus private land

The "no law against filming in public" position applies to genuinely public places such as the highway, public parks, and the street. Private land is different. The land's occupier controls access and can impose conditions, withdraw permission, or ask you to leave; refusing to leave when asked can amount to trespass. This matters for shopping centres, railway stations, hospitals, and similar quasi-public spaces, which are usually privately owned despite being open to the public, and may post photography conditions or be patrolled by security staff with the occupier's authority. Standing on a public pavement to film a building, an incident, or officers on private land alongside is generally lawful, because you remain in a public place. The distinction is about where you are standing, not where the camera is pointed. If officers are on private property and the occupier objects to filming, the occupier's wishes govern access to that land; they do not create a police power to stop you filming from the public highway.

Harassment and repeated filming of an individual

Filming becomes legally risky when it is directed persistently at a particular person rather than at a public event. In England and Wales, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes it an offence under section 2 to pursue a course of conduct that amounts to harassment of another and which the person knows or ought to know amounts to harassment. A course of conduct must involve conduct on at least two occasions, and harassment includes alarming a person or causing them distress. Scotland has separate provisions: section 8 of the same Act gives a civil action of harassment. Northern Ireland has the Protection from Harassment (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. Repeatedly following and filming a specific individual, including an identifiable officer off duty, can in principle form such a course of conduct. The Act also enables civil claims and injunctions independently of any prosecution. Separately, recording someone who has a reasonable expectation of privacy, for example through a window into a home, can give rise to civil liability for misuse of private information even where no criminal offence is committed. Filming a public protest or a single street incident, by contrast, does not meet the repeated and targeted threshold the harassment offence requires.

Drones, the CAA, and the Air Navigation Order

Filming from a drone is regulated separately from filming on foot. Drone flight in the UK is governed by the Air Navigation Order and the CAA's Drone and Model Aircraft Code, and many of the Code's rules are legal requirements whose breach is a criminal offence. Most operators must register with the CAA and obtain a Flyer ID before flying outdoors. The core distance rules in the Code are set out below.

The Code also requires operators to respect people's privacy when filming, and capturing images of identifiable people can engage UK data protection law where the footage goes beyond purely personal use. Flying a drone to film police operations does not create any special permission; the same height, distance, and registration rules apply, and obstruction or counter-terrorism considerations on the ground are unaffected by moving the camera into the air.

What to do if an officer asks you to stop filming

Guidance and the legal framework point the same way: filming itself is lawful, so an officer wanting you to stop needs a specific power tied to your conduct or location. Staying calm, keeping a reasonable distance, and not interfering with a cordon or an arrest keeps you clearly outside the obstruction offence. Officers have no power to make you delete footage, and the stop and search Code confirms there is no power to delete images or destroy film. Police cannot take your phone or camera just because you filmed them, but they can seize it under a specific legal power. In England and Wales, for example, section 19 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 lets an officer who is lawfully on premises (which the Act defines to include any place) seize anything reasonably believed to be evidence of an offence, where that is necessary to stop it being concealed, lost, altered or destroyed. If a section 43 or section 47A stop is conducted, the search is for evidence of terrorism, not a route to confiscate ordinary footage. This is general legal information, not advice; if you are detained, searched, or asked to delete material and are unsure of your position, complying under protest and then making a complaint or taking legal advice is usually safer than a confrontation at the scene.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it illegal to film police officers in the UK?

No. There is no offence of filming or photographing police officers performing their duties in a public place. College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice states officers have no power to stop the public or media filming incidents or personnel from a public place.

Can the police make me delete a video or seize my phone?

Police cannot make you delete footage: the Home Office stop and search Code of Practice states officers have no legal power to delete images or destroy film. Seizure is different. Police cannot take your device just because you filmed them, but they can seize it under a specific power, for example in a counter-terrorism search where film is reasonably suspected to be evidence that the person is a terrorist, or, in England and Wales, under section 19 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 where it is reasonably believed to be evidence of an offence.

Can I be arrested under terrorism law just for taking photographs?

Taking photographs is not in itself a terrorism offence. The stop and search Code tells officers not to automatically treat photography as suspicious. A section 43 stop needs reasonable suspicion you are a terrorist, and section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000 requires that the information be likely to be useful to a terrorist, with a reasonable excuse defence.

What is section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000?

Section 58A makes it an offence to elicit, publish, or communicate information about a constable, member of the armed forces, or intelligence services that is likely to be useful to someone committing or preparing an act of terrorism. It carries up to 15 years on indictment but requires that terrorism link and provides a defence of reasonable excuse, so ordinary filming of officers falls outside it.

Can I film police on private land like a shopping centre or station?

On private land the occupier controls access and can set photography conditions, refuse permission, or ask you to leave, and refusing can amount to trespass. Many shopping centres and stations are privately owned. Filming from a public pavement nearby, however, remains lawful because you are in a public place.

When does filming someone become harassment?

In England and Wales, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, harassment requires a course of conduct on at least two occasions that the person knows or ought to know amounts to harassment, including alarming someone or causing distress. Persistently following and filming a specific individual can qualify; filming a single public event does not. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own harassment provisions.

Is it obstruction if I film an arrest?

Filming from a reasonable distance is not obstruction. In England and Wales, section 89(2) of the Police Act 1996 makes it an offence to wilfully obstruct a constable in the execution of their duty, which means physically interfering or ignoring a lawful instruction to step back, not simply recording. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own obstruction offences.

What are the rules for filming with a drone in the UK?

The CAA Drone and Model Aircraft Code, backed by the Air Navigation Order, requires most operators to register, to fly below 120m, to keep 50m from uninvolved people, and to stay 150m from residential, recreational, commercial, and industrial areas. Lighter drones under 250g have some exceptions but still cannot fly over crowds. Breaching these rules is a criminal offence.