IndyStar, TV stations sue Indiana over 25-foot police buffer law (2024)

A new Indiana law creating a buffer zone between investigating law enforcement and citizens violates the First Amendment by severely limiting the media’s ability to do their jobs, according to a lawsuit filed by IndyStar and several other media outlets.

The suit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, says the statute requiring 25 feet between police officers and the public bars journalists from approaching law enforcement near enough to gather news at crime scenes and other events of public interest.

“The press serves and was designed to serve as a powerful antidote to any abuses of power by government officials,” the suit states. “On April 20, 2023, Indiana enacted a statute, HB 1186, that unconstitutionally abridges the press’s ability to fulfill that function.”

IndyStar is joining the parent companies for several Indiana TV stations, including WXIN, WTHR, WRTV and WANE, in the suit, along with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Indiana Broadcasters Association and the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Attorney General Todd Rokita to vigorously defend law

The suit lists Attorney General Todd Rokita, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears and Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal as defendants.

"Our job is to defend this law and all others passed based on Hoosier values," a spokesperson for Rokita's office said Friday. "We serve as attorneys defending the laws which are passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor.We plan to vigorously defend this law in the exact same manner."

The law, which went into effect July 1, makes it a misdemeanor for a person to “knowingly or intentionally” breach the 25-foot perimeter of a law enforcement officer or crime scene after being ordered to stop.

Advocates of government accountability opposed the law over concerns it will tamp down citizens' efforts to document police actions as well as curb journalists' ability to do their work. In August, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a self-proclaimed "citizen journalist" in South Bend who regularly posts YouTube video recordings of police to expose what he calls problematic law enforcement behavior.

Police in Marion County have already put the law into use, most recently against a 65-year-old woman accused Monday of standing behind an ambulance while recording medics tending to a man under arrest inside. Police said they told the woman, Mary Nichols, to step back and she responded, "This is an ambulance, not your police car." Nichols told IndyStar after her arrest that she was aware of the law, but thought the investigation was over and didn't know the statute applied to all emergency vehicles.

Marion County prosecutor drops charges

The Marion County Prosecutor's Office declined to charge Nichols in the case, saying Friday that she did not interfere with a police investigation nor the medics.

In a statement to IndyStar, a spokesperson with the prosecutor's office called the law "largely unnecessary."

"There are existing laws that protect law enforcement and don’t infringe or impact an individual’s constitutional rights," Michael Leffler said.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The news organizations arguethe statute has no clear guidance on how law enforcement must enforce the 25-foot rule, allowing “moment-to-moment opinions of a policeman on his beat” to decide when someone must withdraw. Newsgathering at press conferences and in public places, like a sidewalk, are also at risk, the suit alleges.

The organizations further argue the law is not practical given the crowded, fast-paced environment at events such as protests, making it impossible for journalists to know whether they're breaching the buffer zone or not.

George Floyd's death, 2020 protests cited

Twenty-five feet is too far away to capture audio or gain a clear line of sight at newsworthy events, the lawsuit says.

“The breadth and importance of the reporting that will be chilled if (the law) remains in effect … are difficult to overstate,” the lawsuit states.

George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis came to the public’s attention after a bystander on a sidewalk “exercised their First Amendment rights,” the media outlets note. In addition, coverage of the protests that erupted in 2020 in downtown Indianapolis after Floyd’s death required reporters to be close enough to law enforcement to capture the events.

Coverage of similar stories could now be jeopardized, the lawsuit says.

"Whenever a journalist receives an order to withdraw while documenting law enforcement activity from a distance of less than 25 feet, that journalist is put to a choice between committing a crime or forgoing reporting," the suit concludes.

The media organizations are asking the federal court to rule the law unconstitutional and halt it from being enforced.

Contact reporter Sarah Nelson at 317-503-7514 or sarah.nelson@indystar.com

IndyStar, TV stations sue Indiana over 25-foot police buffer law (2024)
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