Recording insane behaviors–when can this be done?
I wrote: “Alcoholism and its symptomatic behaviors are everyone’s business. All-too-often, the truth surfaces after tragedy has occurred. Alcoholics are the world’s greatest salesmen and frequently make innocent people appear guilty. Talk to the police, dig into his past to see whether he can be held accountable for prior crimes and, while avoiding contact, record every conversation with him that you can.”
A friend, Nicky, wrote: “This may be unfortunate advice. It is illegal to record electronically a conversation in California unless all parties to the conversation agree or at least one party agrees and a beep tone is emitted every few secs. Recordings illegally obtained would be excluded from evidence and the person doing the recordings could also face prosecution. A third party listening in and taking notes might be safer.”
My response: “That’s why I wrote ‘that you can.’ And, ‘record’ can mean contemporaneous note-taking. I also have heard, but have not confirmed, that one can transcribe from a recorded conversation and destroy the tape. Legalities may vary from state to state.