system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What law police are using to prosecute people recording them.

I've heard a bunch of people talking randomly about "wiretapping laws" and The PATRIOT Act.  What I don't understand is how this can be used against private citizens and why freedom of press doesn't apply.
gpt
According to the courts, wiretapping laws do not prohibit people from recording the police. However the police were using a convoluted reasoning to apply wiretapping laws to such recordings in order to prohibit a behavior that they don't like. 

State laws against wiretapping vary. In general, wiretapping laws prohibit the recording of audio conversations unless the person recording has either obtained a warrant or has complied with the law regarding the notification of the people being recorded. Some states are "single party" and some states are "all parties". In single party states, anybody who is part of the conversation can record the conversation. In all party states, all members of the conversation must be notified and consent to the recording.

Since almost all video recordings also contain audio, the police were claiming that this constituted a wiretap that falls under the wiretapping laws. In all-party states, they would then use the fact that they were not notified or consented to the recording to order someone to shut off the recording or arrest them if they did not. There has been some attempt to also use the law in single-party states as the person recording is often not part of the conversation and is an outside observer. 

Almost all state courts where this has been tried, the courts have ruled that the wiretapping laws only apply in cases where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. If you are on a telephone or in your own home, you have that reasonable expectation of privacy. A police officer operating in the line of duty in a public space does not and thus any recording is perfectly legal. 

This does not stop ignorant police officers or bullies from attempting to apply the law incorrectly or arrest people and erase their recordings.