Recording Law for Recording in Public in Arkansas

Arkansas prohibits intercepting and recording someone else’s oral, phone, or electronic conversation unless you are part of the conversation or at least one person in it has agreed to the recording. The law, set out in Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120, covers any 'wire, landline, oral, telephonic, or wireless communication' and does not add an exception just because the talk happens in a park, on a sidewalk, or in a crowded store. Arkansas courts have applied this rule directly to phone calls and in-person oral communications without adding a privacy-expectation test, so a loud or obviously public exchange does not automatically fall outside the law. The statute makes violations a Class A misdemeanor, though Arkansas courts have held that even an unlawfully obtained private recording remains admissible in court because the state’s exclusionary rule applies only to government actions, not to private individuals.

Arkansas has a separate law, Ark. Code Ann. § 21-1-106, that protects your right to record police officers performing their duties in public places or on private property where you are lawfully present. The statute bars officers from prohibiting you from using a recording device in those settings and prohibits them from deleting your recordings or seizing your device unless the recording itself is evidence of a crime or there are exigent circumstances. However, the Eighth Circuit—which covers Arkansas—has not recognized a clearly established First Amendment right to record police, as shown in Molina v. City of St. Louis, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023), so officers can still claim qualified immunity if they arrest or interfere with your recording. In practice, the Arkansas statute gives you stronger protection than the unsettled federal constitutional landscape, but you should still avoid interfering with police work or crossing into restricted areas while recording.

Arkansas’s audio-recording law, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120, only applies when you are capturing sound. If your device records video without audio, the law does not restrict that activity in public places. The only Arkansas statute that limits video recording is the video voyeurism law, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101, which makes it a Class D felony (Class C for repeat offenses or child victims) to secretly record 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. Recording public disputes, police interactions, or other visible activity with a silent camera is not restricted under Arkansas law.

Arkansas’s one-party-consent rule, found in Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120, applies the same way inside your home as it does anywhere else. You can record conversations you are part of without telling the other person. The only special rule in Arkansas that could affect recording at home is the video voyeurism statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101, which makes it a Class D felony (Class C for repeat offenses or child victims) to secretly record someone in a private area of a residence where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom or bedroom. Ordinary conversations or interactions in your home are not covered by that law unless you are secretly filming someone undressing or in a similarly private context.

Imagine you are at a crowded park and two people near you start arguing loudly. You turn on your phone’s voice recorder to capture the exchange. Under Arkansas law, you violate Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120 if you are not part of the argument and no one in it has agreed to be recorded, even though the talk is loud and obviously public. Arkansas does not treat public settings as an exception to its one-party-consent rule. Because the statute contains no privacy-expectation or public-place carve-out, the lawfulness of the recording turns solely on whether you are a party to the conversation or have at least one participant’s consent. If you want to record safely, either be part of the conversation or get at least one person’s consent before you start recording.

Recording someone else’s conversation without their consent or without being part of it violates Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120 and is a Class A misdemeanor in Arkansas. A conviction carries potential penalties, so you should assume you need consent unless you are part of the conversation. If you are worried about a specific situation, consult a lawyer to understand how the law applies to the facts you face.

Arkansas has no biometric-privacy statute that requires consent or notice before capturing a voiceprint. The only biometric-adjacent provision is in the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Ark. Code Ann. § 4-110-103(7)(E), which defines 'biometric data' to include 'voiceprint analysis' but imposes no pre-collection consent or retention requirements. PIPA’s breach-notification duties apply only after a breach occurs, and enforcement is handled by the Attorney General under Ark. Code Ann. § 4-110-108. A 2025 bill (SB258) that would have created a comprehensive consumer-privacy law with a biometric-data category failed on the Senate floor and died at sine die adjournment, so it has no legal effect.