Advice on taping a phone in report to the police.

[roncoop]

I have a traffic situation in Nebraska. They are doing some construction and have made a road basically one way where it meets a highway. I come in to work at night and turn down this road going the correct way. I have met people that are going the wrong way and have made them get off in the ditch to let me by. Someone is eventually going to get in a head-on accident at this intersection. I have called the dispatch center who have informed me that they have had "several" reports on this incident and have passed it on to the sherrif but they don't seem to do anything about it. They reffered me to the actual station house. I called them and left a message for a luitenent with his secratary. They don't call me back nor do they post an officer at the intersection. My question is: Can I call them again and tape the conversation without their knowledge since they are a public institution. Local radio stations can call public entities and put them on the air without their knowledge, as long as they aren't private citzens. I would like to send the tape to a local TV station that seems to have a good investigative reporter that would probably eat something like this up! I would also like to take my camcorder out to the intersection for a few hours and tape people breaking the law at this intersection and send that tape along too. Is this against the law, how do I go about getting them to act?

Thanks.

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Don't be too sure about the media people not getting into trouble for what they do. But...go ahead and tape the intersection.

To check to see what rules apply in your state about taping conversations of both private people and public officers, check your state law. To do this, go to "state laws" at the freeadvice.com homepage, click on state statutes and then click on the state in which you reside. Then go from there.