NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A federal judge in New York has ruled that police may not videotape people at public gatherings unless there is an indication illegal activity might occur.
The ruling is a setback for a practice widely used by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, The New York Times reported.
The judge who issued the ruling, Charles S. Haight Jr., is the same judge who had given police greater authority nearly four years ago to investigate political, social and religious groups, the newspaper said.
Thursday's ruling said that by videotaping people who were exercising their First Amendment rights breaking no laws, police were going beyond the limits of Haight's 2003 ruling. The new ruling came in a case involving two demonstrations in 2005 -- a march in Harlem and a demonstration by homeless people in front of the home of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"There was no reason to suspect or anticipate that unlawful or terrorist activity might occur," the judge wrote.
