First Amendment Auditors: Who Are They? What Do They Want? How Should You Respond?

First Amendment Auditors are individuals who attempt to enter and remain on city or public property to record your employees, officials, and operations, or to engage in other expressive conduct. They claim to be testing your knowledge of First Amendment rights and are well known for directly confronting and recording law enforcement officers on duty. Their goal is to record how your employees respond to their recording and to see if you violate their first amendment rights. They often engage in verbal tactics to “rattle,” “bait,” “anger,” or “surprise” your employee or official to illicit a “recordable response.” They record from areas that are publicly accessible and any action taken by your employee to challenge or prevent them from recording may become grounds for a lawsuit and/or the video may be placed on YouTube for public viewing. They have challenged employees at banks, restaurants, city halls, and government facilities among other locations. This session provides common sense guidelines on how to properly respond to these frustrating and potentially volatile confrontations.