January 2, 2006
Camera phones allowed in courtrooms again
A year after being banned, the state Office of Court Administration has rescinded the ban on camera cell phones in New York courthouses.
The ban was instituted in the fall of 2004 because cameras aren't allowed in most New York courtrooms under the Civil Rights Law. With most cell phones now featuring cameras and the ban causing a security backlog, the ban was lifted. OCS said the rule was akin to banning cell phones and that wasn't their intent. While cell phones can be taken into courtrooms, they can't be used for calls. Owners of cell phones are told to turn off their phones or silence them.
Security officers were spending more time confiscating camera cell phones and issuing vouchers for their retrieval than they were searching for weapons coming into the courthouses.
Although cell phones can now be carried into courtrooms, they still can't be used for either talking or taking pictures and must be turned off.
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