Let's discuss portable audio recorders

[minimalist]

I think it is pertinent to discuss audio recorders and methods of use when dealing with the police or city due to recent decisions by various states on fourth amendment issues.

My experience recently was with our local city. I received a notice of code violation for woods on my property. When I met with the city officials I used my ipod touch to record the conversation. It turns out that once I provided a copy of the recording to 3 members of the city council the issue completely went away as well as the supposed removal of certain employees of the city.

I think that each and every encounter with law enforcement or any other official needs to be recorded for your protection. Many examples are on youtube or even discussed here. One of recent is the concealed carry holder in Ohio threatened multiple times with death by the officer. The dash camera recorded the entire event but with a current thread on the main about dash camera evidence not being exculpatory I believe is up to us individually to record these encounters for our protection.

Some states have laws stating that you cannot record conversations with law enforcement but I live in a state that I can record. I always start the recorder and inform the other party that the conversation is being recorded.

Chime in with your methods and what you use so others can get an idea of the techniques and what works best as far as brands. I don't really like the audio of the ipod and am researching other brands solely to use for audio.

[kadosh]

Been looking for a dashcam for my car. This looks interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAR-DASHBOAR...item4aae5c8641

What I like is that its passive. You start the car and it starts recording. It also uses First-in-first-out memory meaning that it is continuously recording and overwriting the oldest stuff. Not sure about the quality of the device though. The "sample" clip looks good.

[natty threads]

I'll try to stay in here -

I forget about the workshop
when nothing's broken.

I DO need to set up recording systems
and some kind of surveillance.

Bless!

[kadosh]

I DO need to set up recording systems
and some kind of surveillance.

Bless!

I know what you mean. I have about 1,000 things that I "need" to do before the main event. This is just one that keeps getting put on the back burner. Likely gonna come back to bite me one day.

[liteluvr]

Been looking for a dashcam for my car. This looks interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAR-DASHBOAR...item4aae5c8641

What I like is that its passive. You start the car and it starts recording. It also uses First-in-first-out memory meaning that it is continuously recording and overwriting the oldest stuff. Not sure about the quality of the device though. The "sample" clip looks good.

Picture quality looks good, but:
1. Most LEO encounters will be out the side window or at the rear of the vehicle.
2. The sound in the sample vid seemed horrible..... not sure how that would work with you outside the vehicle during an encounter.

But I've often wished for something like this while on vacation... so we could show folks what the views were like.

I do think it's important to record at least the audio during an encounter. I have an iPhone in an otter case, so I can easily start my note recorder and place it back in the case with no one the wiser.

[kadosh]

Picture quality looks good, but:
1. Most LEO encounters will be out the side window or at the rear of the vehicle.
2. The sound in the sample vid seemed horrible..... not sure how that would work with you outside the vehicle during an encounter.

But I've often wished for something like this while on vacation... so we could show folks what the views were like.

I do think it's important to record at least the audio during an encounter. I have an iPhone in an otter case, so I can easily start my note recorder and place it back in the case with no one the wiser.

Yeah, what I was thinking is turn the camera on the mount to be facing the driver's side window during a stop. It seemed like the audio was noisy from the wind rushing past the open window. Sure would be nice to hear from somebody who has actually had his hands on a unit like this. You can also buy a USB drive that is an audio recorder. Hang it around your neck and you're good to go. Again, I wonder about the quality. Pretty innocuous though and unlikely that LEO would try to remove it from you.

By the way, the EBay link I embedded above is rather EXPENSIVE. Other sellers are selling it for less than half of that amount.

[Davy Crockett]

If they wanted to mess with you, couldn't they say illegal wiretapping?

[kadosh]

If they wanted to mess with you, couldn't they say illegal wiretapping?

Federal Court Affirms Legality Of Recording Police Officers

By Adam Ragusea (@aragusea)
Aug 30, 2011, 3:45 PM

Last Friday, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that affirmed, stronger than ever, the rights of individuals to openly record the actions of police officers.

In 2007, a young lawyer named Simon Glik was walking through Boston Common when he saw three police officers arresting a teenager. Glik thought the officers were getting a little rough, so he flipped open his cellphone camera and started shooting video.

The officers arrested Glik for, in their minds, violating the state’s wire-tapping law, even though the whole incident happened out in public and Glik didn’t try to conceal the fact that he was recording.

The ACLU took up Glik’s cause and the courts threw out the charges against him. Since then, the Boston Police Department has been instructing personnel that the state’s wiretapping law does not apply to people making unconcealed audio or video recordings in public. But Glik and the ACLU have pressed on, suing the BPD and the individual officers for violating his First Amendment rights.

more: [link to radioboston.wbur.org]

Aside from this, Ohio is a "One-party" state so only one party needs to consent. Other states? YMMV.

[kadosh]

Been looking for a dashcam for my car. This looks interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAR-DASHBOAR...item4aae5c8641

What I like is that its passive. You start the car and it starts recording. It also uses First-in-first-out memory meaning that it is continuously recording and overwriting the oldest stuff. Not sure about the quality of the device though. The "sample" clip looks good.

Here's the same thing from China for $30 SHIPPED: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rotatable-27...item2313e0f8ed

[Lurker]

Auto-recording as soon as my car starts??!!!!

Now they'll know when I'm picking my nose!!! Ahh!!!