Police blasted Disney music to thwart videos. Now California city seeks to ban tactic
A California city council proposed a ban to keep officers from blaring copyrighted music to deter the public from recording them.
The ordinance was brought forward during a Santa Ana City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 19, after an officer blasted Disney music during an early-April stolen vehicle investigation.
City council members scrutinized the officer’s behavior and said it prevented people from practicing their First Amendment rights.
On April 4, officers played Disney hits such as “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from “Toy Story” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto” as a YouTuber tried to film them for his channel Santa Ana Audits.
The loud music woke up neighbors, including Santa Ana City Councilman Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, the video shows.
An officer told Hernandez he was playing the music because the man recording will face a copyright infringement for posting the video online, the video shows.
Disney music is copyrighted and requires authorization before using the content online. YouTube will remove any videos with copyrighted material.
But playing the music goes against a policy that exists in the department that keeps officers from not impeding the public from exercising their First Amendment right to record them, Councilmember David Penaloza said.
He asked for an amendment to that policy.
Hernandez said the officers’ behavior was not supported by the city.
“This is not a practice we will uphold. This is a practice that no officer should engage in,” he said.
Penaloza asked for more accountability in the police department and criticized the other officers in the video who did not speak up about the loud music.
“That was one of the most embarrassing things I have ever seen in my life,” Penaloza said. “That police officer made a joke of our police department, made a joke of our city, made a joke of our residents.”
“The public has every right to film any of our city employees, police or not,” he said.
McClatchy News reached out to the Santa Ana Police Department for comment on the proposed ordinance on April 21 but did not immediately get a response.
The department said in an April 6 statement that it is investigating the officer who played the copyrighted music.
“My expectation is that all police department employees perform their duties with dignity and respect in the community we are hired to serve,” Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin said in the statement.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Police blasted Disney music to thwart videos. Now California city seeks to ban tactic."
