Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Washington

Re: tape recording a police officer

Yes, but he won't like it.

Re: tape recording a police officer

The answer to your question is going to depend on specific facts of your situation (of which you have provided nearly nothing). I can only address the general principles of law that apply.

RCW 9.73.030 Controls intercepting, recording, or divulging private communication and provides for exceptions to the requirement for all party consent.

Conversations of an emergency nature, such as the reporting of a fire, medical emergency, crime, or disaster, or which convey threats of extortion, blackmail, bodily harm, or other unlawful requests or demands may be recorded with the consent of one party to the conversation.

STATE v. CLARK, 129 Wn.2d 211 (1996) is possibly the most relevant case on this general question.

It involved police informants recording conversations in a bazaar-like setting on the street or in an informant's car. Trial courts, Court of Appeals and Washington Supreme Court rejected defendants contention that the audio recordings were inadmissible because the conversations with the informant were private under the Privacy Act, RCW 9.73.030, holding that conversations on a public street are generally not protected by the Privacy Act.