Can you film the police? Expert cites recent court ruling

VS

Vicky Stark

27 October 2025 | 10:34

People in South Africa are being reminded of their rights when filming the police. A recent court ruling in favour of attorney Shaun Jacobs clarified this.

Can you film the police? Expert cites recent court ruling

Picture: @SAPoliceService/X

Attorney Shaun Jacobs arrived home to find the police had set up a roadblock outside his house. He asked them to move it, and when they refused, he started filming them. They then became aggressive and arrested him.

He took the matter to court and was awarded R250,000 in damages.

Nathan-Ross Adams, founder and managing director of IT Law Company, says the ruling will help to ensure police accountability.

"With police officers in particular or with law enforcement, the idea is that they're performing a public duty, and so in performing that public duty their right to privacy is limited to an extent."

However, he explains that the person filming needs to be part of the conversation or interaction.

"Let's say you were recording the police interaction that was taking place, and there were other bystanders who were part of that recording that you took. Now, the reason you are actually preserving that recording is for evidence purposes of what happened. But if you want to publish it to social media, for example, you would need to blur out the images of the other people on there because their right to privacy still needs to be preserved."

To listen to Adams discuss this with Clarence Ford on CapeTalk's Views and News, click below:

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