In recent years, as more and more people have started carrying smartphones, there has been a disturbing trend nationwide of citizens being harassed by law enforcement for filming, photographing, and recording law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, multiple incidents have occurred in Texas where citizens were told to stop filming the police, even though filming the police is perfectly legal.

SB 897 seeks to clarify that a citizen is perfectly within their legal right to film police officers during the course of their normal duties. Specifically, if a citizen is charged with interference with public duties, failure to obey the police, or assaulting an officer and is subsequently acquitted, the citizen may recover the costs of defending the frivolous charges.

"My hope is that this bill will cause our police departments to think twice before arresting and charging a person who is doing nothing more than filming the police," Estes said. "The police are public servants, so they should not be doing anything that they would not want caught on film."

Estes serves nearly 820,000 constituents across Senate District 30 which includes all of Archer, Clay, Cooke, Erath, Grayson, Jack, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Wichita, Wise, and Young counties and parts of Collin and Denton counties.