If you are not recording your traffic stops in this day and age, you are really missing out on a valuable tool in obtaining your evidence and making your case, from the simple traffic stop to a violent crime investigation.
While on a traffic stop, I turn on my recorder and capture the initial contact and the driver’s statement. Usually they make some type of admission of the violation. While I’m filling out the citation, I dictate into the recorder my observations and reason for the stop.
If I need to go to court, I advise the Judge and the defendant that I have a recording of the stop. The judge offers the defendant an opportunity to review the recording, at which point the defendant usually changes his plea to guilty.
A recorded suspect statement can lock him into his initial statement thus not allowing him to change it later to cover up his lies. A recording can also capture the officer’s polite and professional contact, which will inevitably assist you if someone makes a false complaint of police abuse.
A recording helps you change the problem from your word against them to your proof against them.
You need to develop a department-approved protocol as to where the recording will be stored (i.e. under the case number or citation number). If your department does not provide you with a recorder, go out and buy one. Get a digital recorder and save it on a department computer. You don’t want to be dealing with audiotapes.
Be safe out there and make your case using today’s technology.