On mobile? Watch Andrew Henderson’s video here.

A St. Paul police officer recently detained a man videotaping officers behind police headquarters, telling him that the sidewalk he was standing on was private property and he needed to move.

Andrew Henderson, who frequently films police, uploaded his video of the interaction to YouTube on Tuesday and now the police department is looking into what happened.

“It brought up a question: What is public, what is private?” Sgt. Paul Paulos, a St. Paul police spokesman, said Wednesday. “What we’ll also do is reach out to the city attorney’s office to get a finer definition.”

The case comes at a time of tension between police and some communities locally and around the country — and many include videos of encounters with law enforcement officers. It’s also a time when officers are especially cautious about their own safety.

“I don’t know of a time in our profession where we as cops have needed to be any more vigilant about our personal safety and the security of our facilities, than the present,” said Mark Ross, treasurer of the St. Paul police union. “There are safety considerations too numerous to list as to why a person making videos of police officers and police facilities creates enough reasonable suspicion to stop, detain and identify somebody engaged in that type of activity.”

Henderson set out Friday to videotape officers in squad cars, looking for instances of them not wearing seat belts. He was motivated by a law enforcement campaign targeting seat belt violators, Click It or Ticket, under way statewide through May.

“As I have seen many law enforcement officers drive without the use of seat belts in their patrol vehicles, I found this to be very hypocritical,” Henderson noted in his video.

He said he saw six officers from various departments not wearing their seat belts over the course of 20 minutes. But Henderson said his videotaping was cut short when St. Paul officer Armando Abla-Reyes told him he had to go down the street.

“I think he overreacted a little bit,” Henderson said Wednesday.

The St. Paul Police Department recognizes First Amendment rights of individuals, Paulos said. Officers also know there have been threats against police departments, and Abla-Reyes was “investigating whether (Henderson) posted a threat to a secure building,” the police spokesman said.

Police headquarters is near downtown, just northeast of the Interstate 94/35E split. Henderson said he was standing on a sidewalk on Olive Street, the street behind headquarters. He was close to the Ramsey County 911 and dispatch center, the jail, the sheriff’s office and the county detoxification center.

Henderson said he saw no signs restricting access when he entered Olive Street from University Avenue. There are gates that law enforcement can close across Olive Street in the small stretch between 13th and Grove streets, marked “Authorized Vehicles Only.” But Henderson said he was not in that enclosure.

City Attorney Samuel Clark said Wednesday that his office is working with the police department “to clarify the rights of way applicable to the sidewalks around the public-safety buildings in the area.”

SIDEWALK AS PRIVATE PROPERTY

Henderson said he was videotaping from the sidewalk Friday for about two minutes when a squad car pulled up and an officer asked what he was doing. One, who identified himself as Officer McNeill, asked Henderson if he was planning an attack on the police department and whether he was watching when shifts end. Henderson said he was not.

Those officers left and Abla-Reyes approached soon after. He asked what Henderson was doing and for his identification. Henderson asked if he was being detained and Abla-Reyes said he was because it was a secure area and he was videotaping.

“There’s people here, civilians that are concerned that you’re videotaping them … They’re afraid for their safety,” Abla-Reyes said. “… That’s why I have every lawful right to detain you … and find out what it is that you’re doing.”

Abla-Reyes checked that Henderson was clear of warrants, then photographed the man and told him he was on private property. The officer told him the other side of University Avenue is public sidewalk and concluded with, “If you continue to trespass on private property, I will arrest you.”

Henderson walked out of the area. He said he found the contention that a sidewalk wouldn’t be public “absolutely ridiculous” and disputes that he needed to give the officer his ID. But Henderson said he complied because he didn’t want to spend the three-day Memorial Day weekend in jail.

POLICE MUST WEAR SEAT BELTS, TOO

The American Civil Liberties of Minnesota says law enforcement can stop and detain people “only if they suspect that you have committed, are committing or are about to commit a crime” and “unless suspected of a crime, law enforcement can’t lawfully require you to identify yourself or produce identification.”

Henderson, who is CopWatch coordinator for Communities United Against Police Brutality, posted his video Tuesday and it had been viewed more than 30,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon.

Paulos said Wednesday the department will provide more instruction to officers about the area around the police department, and what is public and what is private.

Henderson said his video showed St. Paul, Roseville and Metro Transit officers not wearing seat belts in their squad cars.

State law requires drivers and passengers to wear seat belts, and has no exemptions for law enforcement officers. Police department policies also say officers should wear seat belts.

Paulos said “99.9 percent of the time officers do wear their safety belts.”

Roseville police Chief Rick Mathwig said he was disappointed to see one of his officers, Boua Chang, not wearing a seat belt in the video. The officer’s supervisor will talk to him about mandatory use of seat belts, Mathwig said.

A Metro Transit spokesman said the agency would look at the video to determine if one of its officers was shown.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.