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Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You

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  • 09-04-2018, 09:43 AM
    CactusJack2
    Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Washington

    I know federal law states one party consent, Washington is two party consent except when there is no expectation of privacy and I know it's legal to record police officers on duty, at least out in public. Would it hypothetically be legal to record a police officer calling you after an incident in which you were the complainant and had called dispatch requesting a follow up call?
  • 09-04-2018, 10:12 AM
    PayrolGuy
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Not without notice to the officer.
  • 09-04-2018, 10:15 AM
    flyingron
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    There's no problem if you disclose that you are recording. There are also a dozen or so exceptions to the privacy rule. Try reading the sections here:

    http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.73

    Note one exception is calling in the emergency (aka 911) number.

    Write back if you have further questions.
  • 09-04-2018, 01:15 PM
    CactusJack2
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting flyingron
    View Post
    There's no problem if you disclose that you are recording. There are also a dozen or so exceptions to the privacy rule. Try reading the sections here:

    http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.73

    Note one exception is calling in the emergency (aka 911) number.

    Write back if you have further questions.


    Thanks, yes I'm familiar with that RCW, I paraphrased it in my OP. I'm just curious to know if there is any legal precedent of non disclosed recording involving police. For example, some states tried to make it a felony to record police or government officials. The Supreme court overturned it.
  • 09-04-2018, 06:00 PM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting CactusJack2
    View Post
    I'm just curious to know if there is any legal precedent of non disclosed recording involving police.

    My guess is no.

    Since it's illegal to record a phone conversation without consent, you wouldn't be able to use the conversation as evidence in court or play it for anybody else.

    Why do you think you need to record the conversation?
  • 09-05-2018, 07:26 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting CactusJack2
    View Post
    I'm just curious to know if there is any legal precedent of non disclosed recording involving police.

    For your state? Not that I can see.
  • 09-05-2018, 05:01 PM
    CactusJack2
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting adjusterjack
    View Post
    My guess is no.

    Since it's illegal to record a phone conversation without consent, you wouldn't be able to use the conversation as evidence in court or play it for anybody else.

    Why do you think you need to record the conversation?

    Let's say the officer admitted they found the gun we described when they searched the suspect. He admitted this. He tried to back track as to why he was released. He couldn't come up with a reason. We have the 911 call of the guy holding us at gun point, because you can hear the guy in the background being the aggressor, and us in the background telling him do you see our hands, they are up in the air, we don't have any weapons. Some guy held us at gun point and got away with it. The conversation with the cop on the phone with my witness revealed that they did find the exact gun we described. Yet somehow they let him go....
  • 09-05-2018, 08:00 PM
    cbg
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    The conversation on the phone does not prove diddly squat. You could all have been reading from a script for all someone on the other end of the phone knows.
  • 09-05-2018, 09:46 PM
    zags4champs
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Wait, so your statements over a phone call can’t be used as evidence in a court case then?
  • 09-05-2018, 09:59 PM
    cdwjava
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting zags4champs
    View Post
    Wait, so your statements over a phone call can’t be used as evidence in a court case then?

    Of course they can. And the defense can argue whatever they think might mitigate the harm of those statements. We use statements from pretext phone calls and even phone interviews all the time.
  • 09-06-2018, 05:30 AM
    cbg
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    The judge and/or jury is free to give the statements over a phone call as much weight as they think they deserve. But they are not anything even remotely related to "proof".
  • 09-06-2018, 06:33 AM
    cdwjava
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Such recordings ARE "evidence," however. Evidence that would be submitted in an attempt to prove some element of the offense, I imagine.
  • 09-06-2018, 06:55 AM
    cbg
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Not saying they aren't evidence. The OP evidently believed, however, that they constitute proof which cannot be denied. They do not.
  • 09-06-2018, 09:09 AM
    cdwjava
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting cbg
    View Post
    Not saying they aren't evidence. The OP evidently believed, however, that they constitute proof which cannot be denied. They do not.

    True enough.
  • 10-26-2018, 12:31 PM
    travelplus
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    I agree that the phone conversation is hard to be admissible in the court of law. I can call you up and say that I promise to do some work for you but without a written contract its hard to enforce anything verbal. I could even promise my friend that if I win the lottery he will get half. But unless its in writing its inadmissible in court.
  • 10-26-2018, 12:55 PM
    PayrolGuy
    Re: Is It Legal to Record a Police Officer Calling You
    Quote:

    Quoting travelplus
    View Post
    I agree that the phone conversation is hard to be admissible in the court of law. I can call you up and say that I promise to do some work for you but without a written contract its hard to enforce anything verbal. I could even promise my friend that if I win the lottery he will get half. But unless its in writing its inadmissible in court.


    Verbal contracts are enforceable with some exceptions.
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