Dadgummed interior mic!
I love mobile video for cop cars. I do! Some cops complain about the Big Brother aspect of having their stops recorded, but I'm cool with it; don't say or do something that you're not supposed to be doing, and you won't get into trouble. Easy peasey. On at least two occasions, mobile video and a body microphone have cleared me of accusations. On at least a couple of other times, I wished I HAD a body mic and mobile video running. But microphone control might be nice.
A month ago, I put a guy in jail for Driving While License Suspended. Last week the case, which was written in my usual brilliant style, was declined. I was... confused. This... does not occur. What... wha' happen'?
I called the D.A.
Not to whine, mind you. Oh, no. To learn.
So I found out that the DA of our county has decided to completely change the criteria to arrest for suspended licenses, without telling us, and without notifying the State that its charges are just a bit too lax for OUR district attorney's office. I now need a roadside confession of the driver's knowledge that his license was suspended. Oh, very nice. They ALL claim "I didn't know that my license was suspended! They didn't send me nuthin'!"
To which I try to bite back: "That's because you've lived in 5 different addresses in the 3 years since you last notified the state of your current address, as is required by state law within 30 days of moving. You didn't suspect that those six No Insurance citations, 4 speeding citations, and 3 FTA's might have caused your license to be suspended? You know, it's listed in statute that two No Insurance convictions in one year results in a suspended driver license."
But no. Now I have to get them to say,"I'm sorry, Officer G. I knew that my license was suspended, and yet I drove anyway." Great.
Science fiction, in other words.
So I got on the phone with the DA, who explained all of this to my not-whining self, and who then said with a grin in her voice: "But take heart-- 'Elvis is everywhere.'"
What...?
Turns out, the tape that I sent in with the stop had two microphones recording to video: my body mic, and the interior car microphone, which records all sounds within the car. This is great when you have a prisoner in the cage. It can be embarrassing, if your radio is tuned to the wrong station. I happened to have the car good-times radio tuned in to the Sonic Burrito (hosted each Sunday Night by Weird Warren Harris on KNON, TheVoice Of The People) on which Mojo Nixon played their signature hit while I was out with the defendant, so the radio basically provided theme music for us.
"Elvis is Everywhere!"
A month ago, I put a guy in jail for Driving While License Suspended. Last week the case, which was written in my usual brilliant style, was declined. I was... confused. This... does not occur. What... wha' happen'?
I called the D.A.
Not to whine, mind you. Oh, no. To learn.
So I found out that the DA of our county has decided to completely change the criteria to arrest for suspended licenses, without telling us, and without notifying the State that its charges are just a bit too lax for OUR district attorney's office. I now need a roadside confession of the driver's knowledge that his license was suspended. Oh, very nice. They ALL claim "I didn't know that my license was suspended! They didn't send me nuthin'!"
To which I try to bite back: "That's because you've lived in 5 different addresses in the 3 years since you last notified the state of your current address, as is required by state law within 30 days of moving. You didn't suspect that those six No Insurance citations, 4 speeding citations, and 3 FTA's might have caused your license to be suspended? You know, it's listed in statute that two No Insurance convictions in one year results in a suspended driver license."
But no. Now I have to get them to say,"I'm sorry, Officer G. I knew that my license was suspended, and yet I drove anyway." Great.
Science fiction, in other words.
So I got on the phone with the DA, who explained all of this to my not-whining self, and who then said with a grin in her voice: "But take heart-- 'Elvis is everywhere.'"
What...?
Turns out, the tape that I sent in with the stop had two microphones recording to video: my body mic, and the interior car microphone, which records all sounds within the car. This is great when you have a prisoner in the cage. It can be embarrassing, if your radio is tuned to the wrong station. I happened to have the car good-times radio tuned in to the Sonic Burrito (hosted each Sunday Night by Weird Warren Harris on KNON, TheVoice Of The People) on which Mojo Nixon played their signature hit while I was out with the defendant, so the radio basically provided theme music for us.
"Elvis is Everywhere!"
I think it's the bosun's whistle that cracks me up the most.
Labels: confessions, entertainment, music
posted by Matt G @ 12:36 PM
1 Comments:
The Cops in my city got the mics and cameras a couple of years ago. They made a big deal of telling us to be careful what we said when they were on scene. Apparently, if their overheads were on, so was the mic.
They would check the tapes every day for evidence and such. They also made copy's of the "outtakes" to show to everyone at briefings.
One day we were on a wreck and the officer walked up and very seriously said "Watch out, I'm hot" while pointing to his mic.
To which my captain replied "Yes you are big boy!" in an effeminate voice.
It made the out takes.
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