Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I saw on another thread here the advice to a young OC'er to carry a voice recorder in case of unpleasant encounters. How many of you all do this? I usually carry a cell phone that I could use to record conversations, but it's pretty unwieldy and I would likely miss half the conversation before I could get it recording.

Anyone given this serious thought and/or used a recorder to get you out of trouble?

In the very unlikely event that you do encounter "trouble" I'd say that having a recording device of any kind can only work in your favor. In today's society, you never know what is going to be said and I cannot think of one reason not to carry that voice recorder.

I would think that a voice recorder would be especially helpful in an encounter with police. It would help to keep them honest and keep you out of the "he said, she said, but the police are always right" conundrum.

I don't personally carry a recorder, but I know that there are a lot of folks who open carry and carry a recorder because of the increased likelihood of an encounter with police when OC.

Let's further consider a situation like Trayvon Martin in Florida. Regardless of what actually happened in this case...if a voice recording were available, it could lay a lot of misunderstood things about the encounter to rest. If Zimmerman had a recording, then his attorneys could either use it or not use it, whichever would be to his advantage.

I agree with rick but the concern I have with a voice recorder is that in a OC encounter with police and attempt to retrieve a voice record from your pocket could be viewed as an attempt to draw a weapon.

Jakeiscrazy wrote:I agree with rick but the concern I have with a voice recorder is that in a OC encounter with police and attempt to retrieve a voice record from your pocket could be viewed as an attempt to draw a weapon.

thats why you have one fully charged and leave it on all day. you are right you do not want to be reaching for anything and also you don't want anyone knowing you are recording. i carry a Olympus 700 looks like a MP3 player

don't worry about the wiretap laws, that means just that tapping a wire. recording a closed conversation. where privacy can be expected, if it is in general an out door conversation then there is no expectation of privacy. also the supreme court has ruled that LE does not have the rights of privacy on the job

You leave it running all day? I didn't realize recorders had that kind of battery power and memory these days. Do they?

Jamie wrote:You leave it running all day? I didn't realize recorders had that kind of battery power and memory these days. Do they?

This got me curious too and in just a quick search, the first one I found can do up to 22 days (or 2.7 days of highest quality) and also had 15 hours of battery life, and it wasn't too outrageous in price, $50 or so. I guess wth no moving parts and everything digital now, I imagine that they are pretty efficient.

Jakeiscrazy wrote:I agree with rick but the concern I have with a voice recorder is that in a OC encounter with police and attempt to retrieve a voice record from your pocket could be viewed as an attempt to draw a weapon.

Ironically I keep my Pistol and Cell Phone almost right next to each other and that is the first thing that came to my mind too. I'd hate for the Cops to think I am reaching for my Pistol and not my cell phone.