Police and the Press: Balancing Operational Challenges of Law Enforcement with Protests, First Amendment Rights
With the 2024-25 academic year having already started and the ongoing conflict in the Mideast, it seems inevitable that civil unrest and widespread protests will also continue throughout the country, both on and off campus. This may again include campus encampments, major traffic disruptions and a possible escalation in violent clashes with police. These are all matters of public concern being reported by the press. Whether occurring in traditional public forums (i.e. streets, sidewalks, and parks) or at private schools and universities, journalists will be there exercising their First Amendment protected rights to gather and disseminate news, information, and images. How law enforcement dealt with protestors and the press during the BLM social unrest protests and more recent Israel-Gaza war demonstrations has been the subject of costly litigation, resulting in changes to incident response and policing protests. This presentation for chiefs and senior commanders will deal with all these issues, as well as some of the relevant lawsuit settlement terms and proposed guidelines. It will also address the importance of integrating PIO efforts to meet these operational challenges.
Mickey Osterreicher
General Counsel, National Press Photographers Association
Mickey H. Osterreicher is of Counsel to Finnerty Osterreicher & Abdulla and serves as general counsel to the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). He is a member of the New York State Bar Association Media Law Committee, the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) newsgathering committee, the First Amendment Lawyers Association (FALA) and the Advisory Board of DroneResponders. He is an award-winning photojournalist with overt forty years' experience in print and broadcast. His work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Time, Newsweek and USA Today as well as on ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News and ESPN. As a lawyer, Mr. Osterreicher is actively involved in such issues as: cameras in the courtroom, the federal shield law, media access, public photography, ag-gag legislation, anti-paparazzi statutes, drones, copyright, fair use and orphan works. He writes for the NPPA and the MLRC as well as other online publications. He has also written articles for the National Sheriffs Association and has been quoted in the news nationally on many of these issues. The Society of Professional Journalists honored him in 2015 as a 'Fellow of the Society,' the highest professional honor given by the Society for extraordinary contribution to the profession. He has been an adjunct lecturer in Photojournalism at SUNY at Buffalo and an adjunct law professor in media and the law at the University at Buffalo Law School. Mr. Osterreicher has provided training regarding First and Fourth Amendment issues to law enforcement agencies and associations throughout the United States and has moderated and participated on panels nationwide, speaking about the rights and limitations to photograph and record in public – at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) conference. He has also presented workshops at the Legal Officers and Public Information Officers Sections of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), the New York State Sheriffs Association, the Georgia Chiefs of Police, the International Bar Association and the National Press Club in Washington. He has been a uniformed reserve deputy with the Erie County Sheriff's Department since 1976 in 1994 he was honored by the Erie County Sheriff's Department with the Reserve Division Award and in 2017 he was named Reserve Deputy of the Year by the ECSO and Erie County Deputy Sheriff's Badge and Shield Club. Osterreicher is a member of ILEETA as well as being a member of the Public Recording of Police Advisory Committee of the IACP. He is also certified as having been trained under the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Mr. Osterreicher graduated cum laude in 1973 from SUNY at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Science degree in Photojournalism/Photography and received his Juris Doctor, cum laude from the University of Buffalo Law School in 1998. He is admitted to practice in New York State, U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and Fourth Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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