Arkansas recording laws follow a one-party consent rule: you can legally record a phone call or in-person conversation as long as you are part of it, or at least one person in the conversation has agreed to the recording. That standard comes from Arkansas Code 5-60-120, and violating it is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Video, public spaces, workplace calls, and calls that cross state lines each carry their own wrinkles.
The One-Party Consent Rule
Arkansas Code 5-60-120 makes it illegal to intercept or record any wire, landline, oral, telephonic, or wireless communication unless you are a party to the communication or at least one participant has given prior consent. If you are on the call or sitting in the meeting, you are the consenting party. You do not have to tell anyone else that you are recording.
The rule covers audio. It applies to phone calls, in-person conversations, and wireless communications alike, and it does not distinguish between casual conversations and formal ones.
When You Are Not Part of the Conversation
The place people get in trouble is the reverse situation. If you are not a participant, you need prior consent from someone who is before you record. Planting a device in a room to capture other people’s conversations, tapping a phone line you are not on, or using software to intercept calls between other people all violate the statute. One-party consent means one of the actual parties. It does not mean you can consent on your own behalf to record strangers.
Audio Recording Versus Video
Arkansas Code 5-60-120 targets the interception of communications, so it governs audio. Silent video, with no sound captured, does not fall under it. A camera without a microphone in a business lobby is a different legal question than a hidden recorder.
Video with a privacy element is covered by a separate statute. Arkansas Code 5-16-101 makes it a crime to use any image-recording device to secretly observe, photograph, or film another person who is in a private area, out of public view, with a reasonable expectation of privacy, and without consent. It also covers drones, hidden cameras, and disguised equipment used to secretly record someone’s body where they reasonably expect privacy.
The penalties are much steeper than for audio. A first or second offense under the main subsection is a Class D felony. A third offense, or any offense involving a victim under fourteen, is a Class C felony. Sharing the recording or posting it online can lift a related misdemeanor charge from Class B to Class A.
Recording in Public and Recording Police
Arkansas has an unusually strong statute protecting the right to record in public. Under Arkansas Code 21-1-106, a public officer or employee cannot stop you from using a recording device in a place open to the general public, or on private property where you are lawfully present, except in narrow circumstances involving genuine safety risks, critical infrastructure, obstruction, criminal conduct, copyright, or attempts to bypass paid access.
The same statute bars public officials from deleting data from your device against your wishes unless the data is contraband, and from seizing the device unless it appears involved in a crime or an emergency justifies it.
Federal case law reinforces this when the subject is a police officer. Eight of the thirteen federal circuit courts of appeals have explicitly recognized a First Amendment right to record law enforcement in public. The Eighth Circuit, which covers Arkansas, has recognized a clearly established right to observe police activity in at least two cases. No federal circuit has held otherwise. The right is subject to reasonable limits like not physically interfering with officers or tampering with evidence.
Calls That Cross State Lines
Arkansas’s one-party rule matches the federal standard under 18 U.S.C. 2511, which also permits recording with one participant’s consent. Federal law adds one condition: even with consent, the recording cannot be made for the purpose of committing a crime or a tort.
The complication comes when the other person is in a stricter state. About a dozen states require all-party consent, meaning every participant has to agree. When a call crosses state lines, the accepted practice is to follow the stricter state’s law. An Arkansas caller recording someone in California, for instance, would need to comply with California’s all-party requirement. If you do not know where the other person is physically located, announcing at the start that the call is being recorded solves the problem. That announcement obtains consent from everyone on the line regardless of which state’s law applies.
Workplace Recording
An Arkansas employee can generally record a workplace conversation they are part of without telling coworkers, because one-party consent is satisfied. The catch is that employers often have their own recording policies, and violating a company policy can still get you fired even if the recording itself was legal under state law.
Employers who monitor employee communications face their own limits. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act generally prohibits intercepting communications unless the monitoring serves a legitimate business purpose or the employee has consented. Employers have more latitude on company-owned devices and systems, where employees have a reduced expectation of privacy.
Exceptions to the Consent Requirement
Arkansas Code 5-60-120 carves out several categories where the standard rule does not apply. Law enforcement officers and other government agents acting under color of law can intercept communications as part of official duties, and courts can authorize disclosure of customer communications, pen registers, and trap-and-trace devices during criminal investigations consistent with the federal Stored Communications Act.
Employees and agents of phone companies and other telecom providers can intercept communications when doing so is necessary to provide their service or protect the provider’s rights and property. They can also assist law enforcement acting under color of law.
FCC-licensed amateur radio operators are exempt from the statute entirely. Anyone using a police scanner can intercept those communications freely, as long as the purpose is personal enjoyment rather than something illegal.
Criminal Penalties
Violating the one-party consent rule under Arkansas Code 5-60-120 is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a maximum of one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
Video voyeurism under Arkansas Code 5-16-101 is far more serious. A first or second conviction under the main subsection is a Class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison. A third conviction, or one involving a victim under fourteen, is a Class C felony, which can mean up to ten years. Distribution-related conduct starts as a Class B misdemeanor but escalates to Class A if the person shared the recording, posted it online, or has a prior conviction under the statute.
Civil Damages Under Federal Law
Criminal charges are not the only exposure. Under 18 U.S.C. 2520, someone whose communications were unlawfully intercepted can sue and recover the greater of actual damages plus any profits the violator made, or statutory damages of $100 per day of violation or $10,000, whichever is larger. Courts can award punitive damages in appropriate cases and must award reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs to a successful plaintiff.
This federal remedy applies even when the recording happened entirely within Arkansas, because the federal wiretap statute runs alongside state law. Someone who illegally records another person’s conversations in Arkansas faces a state criminal charge and a federal civil claim with a $10,000 floor on damages.