Recording Law for Family Law in Arkansas

Arkansas law says you can record any conversation you are part of without their consent. The rule is simple: if you are one of the people talking, you can record the conversation and it is legal. This applies whether the conversation happens face-to-face, on the phone, or over video chat. The law does not care if the conversation is loud, quiet, indoors, outdoors, or in front of other people. The only requirement is that you yourself are part of the conversation. The law that covers this is Arkansas Code § 5-60-120(a), which says it is illegal to record a conversation unless you are a party to it or one party has given consent. In plain terms, if you are in the room, on the call, or in the video chat, you can hit record without asking anyone else.

The law covers "wire, landline, oral, telephonic communication, or wireless communication." That means any spoken exchange you are part of is covered, whether it happens in person or over a device. Arkansas has no codified privacy/confidentiality threshold for its recording statute. Arkansas courts have applied the one-party-consent rule directly to recorded phone calls without ever screening for an expectation of privacy. The three Arkansas Supreme Court cases that interpret this law—Elliott v. State (1998), Lewis v. State (1999), and King v. State (2019)—all apply the one-party-consent rule to recorded conversations without discussing any expectation-of-privacy gate. So a loud argument in a restaurant, a phone call with your ex, or a video chat with a family member are all treated the same: if you are part of it, you can record it.

Arkansas law does not add any special rules for recording inside your own home. The one-party-consent rule applies the same way whether you are in your living room, your kitchen, or your backyard. The only distinct home-related carve-out in Arkansas law is the separate video voyeurism statute, Arkansas Code § 5-16-101. That statute criminalizes secretly recording another person in a private area of a residence (or other structure) where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy—such as a bathroom, bedroom, or changing area—without knowledge or consent. Video voyeurism is a Class D felony for a first or second offense and a Class C felony for a third offense; if the victim is under 14, the offense is a Class C felony. If the recording is of a person's body parts in a non-stationary, concealed manner, it is a Class B misdemeanor (Class A if distributed or a repeat offense). This crime is aimed at covert, intimate or voyeuristic recording, not at recording arguments or exchanges you are part of. So if you are recording a custody exchange or a dispute in your home, the one-party rule still applies. But if you secretly record someone undressing or in a private space without their knowledge, you could face serious felony charges.

Arkansas has a law that protects your right to record police officers performing their duties in public. Arkansas Code § 21-1-106 says a public officer or employee, including a police officer, cannot prohibit you from using a recording device in a place open to the public or on private property where you are lawfully present. The law lists narrow exceptions, such as if you are physically interfering with an officer's work, inside a public water-treatment facility, if the recording itself is a crime, likely copyright infringement, circumventing a permission or payment system, or unreasonably obstructing or inhibiting another's lawful presence or movement. This law gives you stronger, more concrete protection than the uncertain federal constitutional landscape in this circuit, because the Eighth Circuit—the federal appeals court covering Arkansas—has not clearly recognized a First Amendment right to record police. A recent case, Molina v. City of St. Louis (2023), shows that officers in Arkansas may still challenge the recording in court even when it is statutorily allowed. So while you can record police in public under state law, there is still some legal risk if the officer objects.

If your device only captures video without recording the conversation's audio, Arkansas's audio-recording law does not apply. That law, Arkansas Code § 5-60-120, governs interception and recording of "wire, landline, oral, telephonic communication, or wireless communication," which means it is triggered by the audio component. So a camera that records only silent video of a public dispute or a police interaction is not restricted by this law. The only video-specific crime in Arkansas is video voyeurism (§ 5-16-101), which targets secretly recording someone in a private area where they expect privacy. If your device records both video and audio, then the one-party-consent rule applies to the audio portion.

Imagine you are meeting your ex at a public park to exchange your child for a weekend visit. You wear a small camera that records both video and audio. Since you are part of the conversation and the exchange happens in a public place, Arkansas law allows you to record without telling your ex. If your ex later denies saying something you recorded, the recording can be used in court to support your version of events. If you later secretly record your ex in their bathroom, however, you could face felony charges under the video voyeurism law. This example shows how the one-party rule applies in real life, while also highlighting the narrow exception for private spaces.

Recording a conversation without the consent required by Arkansas Code § 5-60-120(a) is a Class A misdemeanor. The statute does not distinguish between in-person and electronic communications; the same penalty applies whether the unlawful recording is of a face-to-face conversation, a phone call, or a video chat. Arkansas courts have held that even an unlawfully obtained private recording remains admissible in court, so the primary risk of an unlawful recording is criminal liability rather than suppression of the recording as evidence. The video voyeurism statute (§ 5-16-101) carries stiffer penalties: a Class D felony for a first or second offense, and a Class C felony for a third offense; if the victim is under 14, the offense is a Class C felony. For covert recording of body parts in a non-stationary, concealed manner, the penalty is a Class B misdemeanor (Class A if distributed or a repeat offense).