Recording Law for Phone & Video Calls in Arkansas

Arkansas law allows you to record any phone call or video call (Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, etc.) you are part of without needing the other person’s consent. The rule is the same whether you're on a phone call, a video call, or talking in person. The key statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120(a), makes it illegal to intercept and record a "wire, landline, oral, telephonic, or wireless communication" unless you are a party to the conversation or one participant has given prior consent. This applies to all types of calls and video chats, with no special rules for work, personal, or professional settings. Arkansas’s recording statute is a bright-line one-party consent rule with no privacy threshold or public-place exception — the only test is whether you are a party to the conversation or one participant has consented.

Arkansas treats phone calls, video calls, and similar electronic conversations the same way. The statute covers "wire, landline, oral, telephonic, or wireless communication," which includes standard phone calls, VoIP calls, and video calls where people speak to each other in real time. This means Zoom calls, FaceTime chats, Microsoft Teams meetings, Google Meet sessions, and similar platforms are all covered. The law does not require you to announce you are recording or obtain anyone's permission as long as you are part of the call. If you are not part of the call, you would need at least one participant’s consent to record.

Arkansas has a separate law, Ark. Code Ann. § 21-1-106, that protects your right to record on-duty police officers in public places or on private property where you are lawfully present. This law says officers cannot stop you from using a recording device in those settings, and they cannot delete your recordings or seize your device unless it is evidence of a crime or there are exigent circumstances. However, the federal Eighth Circuit — which includes Arkansas — has not clearly established a First Amendment right to record police, as shown in Molina v. City of St. Louis, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023), so officers may still claim qualified immunity in some situations. In practice, recording police is allowed if you are in a public place or lawfully present on private property and are not interfering with their duties.

Arkansas does not impose extra rules for recording inside your own home. The one-party consent rule applies the same way whether you are in your living room, backyard, or office. The only Arkansas law that could apply in a home setting is Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101, which targets covert recording in private areas like bathrooms or bedrooms where someone has a reasonable expectation of privacy. This law is aimed at voyeurism and hidden cameras, not general recordings of conversations or disputes. For ordinary calls or video chats recorded in your home, the one-party consent rule is all that matters.

Recording someone without their consent in Arkansas is a Class A misdemeanor. If you violate Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120(a), you could face up to a year in jail and fines. However, Arkansas courts have ruled that recordings made in violation of this law can still be used as evidence in court, even if they were obtained unlawfully. This means the recording might be allowed in a legal proceeding even if the way it was made was against the law. The risk is primarily criminal, not evidentiary — the recording could be used against you or others even if it was made illegally.

Imagine you are on a work call with a client using Zoom and you record the call to take notes later. Under Arkansas law, this is allowed because you are a party to the conversation. Or say you are on a FaceTime call with a family member and record it to share with relatives. Again, this is legal because you are part of the call. The law does not require you to tell the other person or ask for permission. The same rule applies to a Teams meeting with coworkers or a group FaceTime with friends. As long as you are part of the call, you can record it without notifying anyone else.

Arkansas’s wiretapping statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120, governs only the interception or recording of audio communications — it does not restrict silent, audio-free video recording. A camera capturing only silent video of a public dispute or a police interaction, with no audio, falls outside the scope of § 5-60-120. The only Arkansas statute that could restrict video-only recording is the video voyeurism law, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101, which narrowly criminalizes secretly recording a person’s body or private areas where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as in a bathroom or bedroom. This voyeurism statute is not implicated by recording disputes or police interactions in public or otherwise-visible settings.