Dueller, legal opinion plz?

LOL...

Refusing consent to be taped is one thing, but what about simply notifying the officer that you had a camera rolling during your ride/stop (focused on your speedometer), and also letting him know that your "conversation" was being recorded? Would be interesting to see what kind of behavior would follow.

JA

As long as you have the video constantly loading to a remote storage, you're be fine. Otherwise, they could smash it and it'd be your word against his.

Interesting,

Found this, "It is not a violation of the Washington Privacy Act to tape-record a police officer in the performance of an official function on a public thoroughfare. Such conversations are not `private' under the Privacy Act. This rule of law was clearly established by Washington Courts in 1992 in the case of State of Washington v. Flora."

In this

You need to lay off the bud.

Traffic cops in this province are choir boys and giggling virgins compared the boys south of the border.

Maybe not to him;)

So there is a civil rights case going on in Houston due to a businessman who took photos and recorded a marked police car and officer on his commercial property.

Long story the guy was arrested and the city of houston is standing behind the cop claiming

"...the city's contention is, explicitly, that photographing and recording the police can "reasonably" (if mistakenly) be interpreted as criminal "interference with public duties."

Texas penal code does allow recording of a conversation if the one doing the recording is a party to the conversation.

"
(c) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under
Subsection (b) that:

(4) a person not acting under color of law intercepts a
wire, oral, or electronic communication, if:
(A) the person is a party to the communication; "

So my take on that is, while you can record a stop you should NOT tell the officer that you are doing so. If he does not know that you are taping the conversation then there can be no claim that there is "interference with public duties."

That got a whole philly narcotics team busted recently.

They tore this guys store up yanking out 9 cameras but didnt know the whole time the video was downloaded to a remotely located hard drive.

SNAGGED.

These scum had been knocking off stores for months stealing cash and merchandise. Can't wait for that trial. Should be most amusing.

Thanks.

I read about that case, those guys out and out robbed that place and thought it was ok because they had badges.

Where I live some residents in a neighborhood were upset about people speeding through it and set up a radar gun with a video camera to try and gather evidence against the speeders. One of the repeat offenders turned out to be a cop who was on duty. When he found out he was taped he arrested the couple that set up the camera and attempted to charge them with some type of anti-stalking law. I'm pretty sure it was thrown out of court but I'm sure that made it no less traumatic for a couple trying to protect their children.

Here is another case from Tennessee.
http://carlosmiller.com/2008/07/14/tennessee-man-arrested-for-unlawful-photography-after-photographing-cop/

There seem to be a growing number of cops who really love the law - except when they realize it applies to them as well.

Small, concealable recording devices are levelling the playing field a bit, aren't they? I wish now I had one that day. Then again, it would be pretty difficult to record every minute of one's every trip, in anticipation of having to prove one's speed at a later date. Merely taping the interaction after the stop would prove nothing.

When I think about it, that really is a large part of the problem - none of us drive around with any thought towards having to prove our speed at a later date. The burden of proof absolutely must fall to the accuser, not the accused. We need to demand that they bring real evidence, not just their word. Their word should carry no more weight than that of the citizen; the rather contemptuous insinuation that they are more honest than the citizens they serve must stop. We need to raise the bar on this, and we need to start demanding that now.

GPS tracking device. There have been one or two recent cases where they have been used to prove innocence. Was not easy getting them admitted as evidence but the more people try the more precedent there will be.

You have no idea how much i wish they had that. But then again people dispute red light camaras that will clearly show that the person ran a red light......

I would say "Good, now there will be two accurate recordings of what has occurred on this trafic stop"

Before this descends into one of those threads that starts saying all cops are bad, remember that isn't the case.
Most LEO are dedicated folks who try and do a good job protecting us. A few morons can hurt the reputation of the rest very easily. To the good ones, thanks. To the few rare bad ones, eat crap and die.

BTW, I've never met on of the bad ones yet. I hear they are out there but we haven't crossed paths.

And there are several good reasons for running a red light that should not be ticketed. If I'm on my bike heading toward a green light, the road is wet and there's a truck behind me that isn't slowing down when the light turns yellow, I'm going through. And we all know yellow lights have been shortened in many intersections with cameras for the sole purpose of catching more people. Likewise, if I'm on my bike and am the only vehicle at a red light that runs on sensor pads, I don't weigh enough to trip the light. Why should I have to wait for more cars to show up to make the light turn green?

Those both sound good, but I've yet to see anyone who disputes a red light case use either of those defenses.

Got a ticket in Staten Island under EXACTLY that same situation.

It was pouring, windy and misty. You know those conditions that make visibility limited.

Was coming up on an intersection that was going yellow, started to stop and checked my six. There was no way the woman behind me was going to be able to stop so I floored it.

Camera got me.

I'm sure the woman behind me never saw the light since the the wifes Tahoe was kicking up a good deal of spray and she was right on my ass.

Jeff, did you ask to see the speed on the radar readout of the gun or unit.

I know that they can flash their hand or swing the unit to create a false number, but it is always a good idea to see the locked in speed.

Good luck.....