Recording Law for Recording in Public in Colorado

Colorado lets you record any in-person conversation you’re part of without telling the other person. The law splits in-person conversations into two parts: first, whether you were a visibly present participant (if you were, the eavesdropping statute doesn’t apply to you at all), and second, whether the conversation carried a reasonable expectation of privacy. If you were visibly present, you’re outside the statute’s scope entirely. If you weren’t visibly present, the law only applies if the people involved had a reasonable expectation the conversation wouldn’t be overheard or recorded. The key statute is Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-9-304, which makes it a crime to eavesdrop by overhearing or recording a conversation when you’re not a visible participant and the conversation carried a reasonable expectation of privacy. The statute also says you need consent from at least one person in the conversation—but if you’re part of it, that’s you, so you’re covered. The reasonable-expectation test comes from the definition of “oral communication” in § 18-9-301(8), which requires both a subjective belief the communication is not subject to interception and circumstances that objectively justify that belief. The court in *People v. Lesslie*, 939 P.2d 443 (Colo. App. 1996) applied this framework to a hidden listening device in a bar restroom, holding that the occupants had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy that a hidden transmitter could violate.

For phone calls, texts, or other electronic messages, Colorado’s wiretapping law (§ 18-9-303) uses a one-party consent rule. You can record a call or message if you’re part of it, even if the other person doesn’t know. The law makes it illegal only if you intercept a telephone, telegraph, or electronic communication you’re not a sender or intended receiver of, without the consent of either a sender or a receiver. So if you’re on the call or getting the message, you’re allowed to record it. The statute covers “telephone, telegraph, or electronic communication,” and the definition of “electronic communication” in § 18-9-301(3.3) includes transmissions “by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photooptical system that affects interstate or foreign commerce.” The law doesn’t care whether the conversation happens in public or private—just whether you’re a party to it.

Recording video without audio is unrestricted everywhere in Colorado under the state’s wiretapping and eavesdropping laws. Those laws focus on intercepting spoken conversations or electronic messages, not silent video. The wiretapping statute (§ 18-9-303) covers “telephone, telegraph, or electronic communication,” and the eavesdropping statute (§ 18-9-304) covers “conversation or discussion,” which means spoken exchanges. Video-only recording doesn’t fall under either law because neither statute addresses a device’s local video storage or silent capture of a scene. For audio or audio-plus-video recordings, the eavesdropping law applies if you’re not visibly present during a conversation and the people involved had a reasonable expectation it wouldn’t be overheard. That includes parks, sidewalks, streets, and most areas inside stores or restaurants open to the public, where conversations generally carry no reasonable expectation of privacy. The eavesdropping law only applies if you’re not visibly present during a conversation and the people involved had a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is determined under the same reasonable-expectation framework imported from § 18-9-301(8) and applied in *People v. Lesslie*. In *People v. Lesslie*, the court said conversations in a bar restroom had a reasonable expectation of privacy, but conversations in open public view do not. So recording a loud argument in a store aisle with video only is allowed under state law, while recording the same argument with audio may require one-party consent if you’re not visibly present and the participants had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Colorado law specifically protects your right to record police officers performing their duties in public. A federal appeals court has ruled that filming police in public is protected by the First Amendment, and Colorado has a state statute (§ 16-3-311) that says you have the right to record peace officer incidents and keep control of your recording. Police may not seize a recording or device without your consent, a warrant, a subpoena, or a limited exigent-circumstance seizure up to 72 hours pending a warrant. If they do, you can sue for damages under § 13-21-128. This applies even if the officer tells you to stop recording.

Recording video without audio is not restricted by Colorado’s wiretapping or eavesdropping laws. Those laws focus on intercepting spoken conversations or electronic messages, not silent video. The wiretapping statute (§ 18-9-303) covers “telephone, telegraph, or electronic communication,” and the eavesdropping statute (§ 18-9-304) covers “conversation or discussion,” which means spoken exchanges. Video-only recording doesn’t fall under either law because neither statute addresses a device’s local video storage or silent capture of a scene. So filming a public event, a store aisle, a park, or a police interaction with your phone’s camera—without recording sound—is allowed under state law. Just be careful not to violate other laws, like trespassing or invasion of privacy in private spaces.

Say you’re shopping at a grocery store and you overhear two employees arguing loudly in the aisle. You pull out your phone and start recording the argument with audio. Under Colorado law, this is allowed only if you’re part of the conversation and the employees had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public store aisle. If you weren’t part of the conversation and the employees had a reasonable expectation of privacy, you would need their consent to record. If you later post the video online, you could face consequences only if the video includes defamatory statements or violates store policies—but the recording itself is legal if done under the one-party consent rule. Now imagine you’re outside the store and you record police officers arresting someone. Colorado law protects your right to do this, and police can’t legally delete your footage or seize your phone without a warrant or consent.

Colorado’s recording laws include several narrow exceptions and affirmative defenses. Section 18-9-305(1) allows the use of wiretapping or eavesdropping devices “on his own premises for security or business purposes if reasonable notice of the use of such devices is given to the public,” but this applies only to security or business purposes and requires notice to the public, so it does not cover a purely personal recording at home without posted notice. The statute also includes a news-media exemption: nothing in the eavesdropping or wiretapping statutes prevents a news agency or its employees from using standard reporting tools to cover a public and newsworthy event. Separately, Colorado’s civil invasion-of-privacy statute targets unlawful sexual or nudity photography and is not implicated by recording public disputes or police interactions.