[Hnrobert42]

Are you arguing that playing music is illegal?

[rakoo]

Most music is under a copyright that explicitely prevents public diffusion without a license. Unless the music doesn't have such a limitation, or the police have a license, yes, playing music in a public fashion like that is most probably illegal

[sumthinprofound]

it has a chilling effect on a citizen documenting an interaction where the other party has all the power.

[bialpio]

There are definitely cases where playing music violates the license, but I wouldn't call it illegal[1]. Playing music at some business almost certainly is not allowed by default, you'd probably need to get a permission from someone authorized to give you one (i.e. a different license). Playing music in public likely has similar rules.

[1] IANAL, etc, etc.

[cecilpl2]

Intent matters. In some situations, yes, playing music is illegal.

[LocalH]

Are you arguing that the police should be able to play copyrighted music to circumvent the lawful dissemination of recordings of their behavior?

[Hnrobert42]

Of course not.