I don’t really have a problem with this. There may be some emergency situations where you don’t have time to activate it, etc.. Gor a routine traffic stop, there isn’t a valid excuse to not turn it on. If it is broken or non-functioning, that’s different. But if the sheriff/chief says “turn it on for all stops”, and you don’t...well, there’s a reason its called an order.
On tv he said, turn it on with any interaction with the public.
I do. I take exception that the tool was available but not used, how convenient.
I want all my interactions with an officer of the court/law to be recorded by him , I or both. Of course, its for “your protection, officer”.
I record audio when I interact with anyone of govt employ, as its official statements to/from/by both parties.
Cool thing about Missouri, my state of residence, is that only one party has to know that the interaction is being recorded. They get theirs, I get mine, any equivocation by either party is reduced to fact, any interpretation has to be derived from the actual words, not the hearsay of any party.
As it should be. Perry Mason a, Robert Cannon and Andy Griffith nothwithstanding, the truth is a rare bird.
Now that the trooper has been terminated, we are likely to see it roll into more than “oops”, he shouldnta done that”.
When all that hangs in the balance is a court officer’s word against yours, guess how that turns out?
By the way, before I get the nasty anti-cop label, it is officers of the court and the law that advise me to so do. All conversation with a govt official is prosecutable, one better have proof of the actual exchange or it all up to a judge, not even a jury, to allow or disallow any alternate summary of the words....