Originally Posted by
Unreasonable
It seems like you missed what he was saying. He was suggesting pulling the mic down to hear HIMSELF talk and say the license number/cursing/whatever else he says as he gets buzzed.
No, I think he understood what was said properly, and just thinks any sort of microphone is a bad idea.
No matter where the mic is, I doubt any court would find the sound of the car wooshing by comparable to eavesdropping or wiretapping without consent.
No, his concern isn't with wooshing cars -- it's with recorded conversations.
In case you live in a box, there's been a number of cases in the news lately where people have recorded their interactions with police and been arrested for it under the wiretapping laws that he identified. The laws vary from state to state, but in general one must have the expectation of privacy for a recorded conversation to be considered wiretapping, and if you're just out in the street, you really shouldn't have any expectation of privacy -- especially if you're a cop doing your job, but none of this is specific to cops. (Though cops do generally have cameras in their car, recording all the time, even in these states where this has been an issue.)
However, even so, the police have still arrested people, gotten warrants, taken all their computer equipment, etc. and such in several cases. There's still a few high profile cases waiting to go to court, and the ACLU has gotten involved in at least one of them, and at one person in Congress recently introduced a bill making it always legal to record one's interactions with the police. (Again, the recent issues in the news have dealt with the police, but there's no reason why this has to be restricted to police.)
And really, if recording the audio is illegal, then recording the video should be illegal too, especially if it's clear enough for one to read lips or somebody made some ... communicative gestures that were recorded. Flipping the bird is communication, and if that's recorded without consent ...
The whole thing is stupid. Personally, I'm glad I live in a state with more reasonable wiretapping laws, but Illinois IS one of the states with problems, so perhaps removing the microphone might indeed be wise.
If you need some background citations ...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ne_recordings/
http://www.dvafoto.com/2010/06/three...ivity-illegal/
http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns
http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/vide...ry?id=11179076
http://carlosmiller.com/2010/07/13/o...a-few-arrests/
http://www.nycphotorights.com/2010/0...o-tape-police/